Five Nigerian journalists, 42 others selected for Solutions Journalism Mentorship program

Working in six cohorts with fellow journalists who share their medium or issue area, and with one-on-one support from a mentor of their choice from the Solutions Story Tracker®, each of these journalists will work to produce at least one new solutions story by the end of 2020.

Below are the profiles of the 47 journalists;

THE GWEN IFILLS Cohort:

This cohort of journalists is committed to broadcasting solutions-focused coverage across multimedia. Like their namesake, their reporting in radio, television, and other multimedia formats captivates audiences through its distinctly human dimensions.

Amy Zhang, currently based in New York City, is a segment producer forPatriot Act with Hasan Minhaj and a freelance writer. She pitched and co-produced episodes about Chinese censorship and the Asian American vote, and wants to galvanize solutions journalism for the Asian American community.

Andres Felipe Vera Ramirez,based in Medellin, Colombia, is a business administrator and journalist with experience in radio and written press, working to (re)build trust in journalism. He is an active pro bono volunteer in different global communities.

David Jones is a broadcast journalist based in San Diego.. He worked at the local NBC owned station there as a writer and video editor. He also produces TV and igital newscasts.

Paul Adepoju is a freelance journalist based in Nigeria, where he covers developments across the African continent for CNN, Devex, Quartz, and other media outlets. He reports on science, tech, health and development, and is passionate about integrating more solutions into his coverage.

Priyanka Shankar, originally from India but currently shuttling between Belgium and The Netherlands, is an independent journalist with a keen interest in press freedom, human rights and podcasting. She edits and writes stories forAre We Europe, freelances with the audio-visual unit of the European Parliament, and previously worked as a business news correspondent for Reutersin India. She was introduced to solutions journalism by friends at university and has written a few stories for Inkline,a solutions journalism platform.

Sedera Ranaivoarinosy is a Paris-based freelance journalist and content creator, focused on art, inclusion, and culture. She turned to journalism when she went to university because she wanted to understand the issues of her world, talk about them, and give people a context to act. Apart from her journalism work, she’s also an avid volunteer.

Ties Gijzel is a journalist based in the Netherlands. He works at VPRO (the Dutch ARTE), an investigative journalism platform, and is the co-founder of Are We Europe, a magazine and collective of 700+ journalists across Europe. As a grantee to Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative by World Press Photo, he’s excited to incorporate a solutions angle into his storytelling.

ALSO READ: Apply for summer school on investigative reporting in Latvia

THE ATUL GAWANDES Cohort:

This cohort of journalists is committed to using narrative journalism to showcase solutions. Like their namesake, journalists in the Atul Gawandes cohort use deep storytelling as a tool to shine light on characters experiencing solutions first-hand, across a wide variety of issue areas.

Chris Rudisill is a journalist, artist, and teacher of a course in fiber art at the University of North Carolina — Charlotte. Through his work on the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, he’s written solutions stories on affordable housing, and is currently working on two additional stories that will focus on LGBTQ senior co-housing solutions and LGBTQ youth housing.

Doug Meigs is an award-winning journalist focused on environmental issues, arts and culture, and narrative journalism. He was recently the executive editor of Omaha Magazine and previously spent five years reporting in Hong Kong.

Dylan Klempner is an independent journalist interested in the role of the arts in science and health communication. In fall 2020, he will start a PhD program at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. He’s also worked as an artist and writer in residence at UF Health hospital, where he facilitated art making for patients and caregivers. More recently, he wrote about the role of visual art in hospitals and about the use of music to fight loneliness in elder care.

Henry Savage is a journalist and currently the news features editor forKensington Voice. Before practicing solutions journalism, he was working with the city’s daily paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other local publications. Taking the experiences he learned from these larger, more established organizations, he worked alongside peers to create a newsroom in a Philadelphia neighborhood that needed help reclaiming its community narrative.

Keith McGuinness is a freelance writer specializing in finance and economics. He is particularly interested in solutions journalism that covers how developing countries can leverage globalisation and the benefits of migration.

Lyndsay Knecht has worked as a producer, an editor, and an arts journalist for public radio and print for the past 15 years. She has a deep interest in how the arts can affect social change and mental health, and is eager to shift her work in journalism toward solutions for affordable housing, mental health reform, and public education.

ALSO READ: Apply for €350.000 Money Trail reporting grant

Melissa Chadburn is Los Angeles-based journalist who writes about labor, class, and the child welfare system. She’s a doctoral candidate in at USC’s PhD in Creative Writing program, where her focus is on child fatalities within L.A.County of kids with open DCFS investigations. She was recently featured prominently in The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, a Netflix docuseries about an 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, who was tortured to death by his parents. Her work has appeared in The LA Times, NYT Book Review, NYRB, longreads, and dozens of other places.

Ndubuaku Kanayo is a freelance journalist based in Lagos, Nigeria. He has been practicing journalism for four years, and has an academic background in sociology and anthropology. He always tries to write, edit, investigate and report on social issues using a solutions approach.

Simon Campbell is a narrative longform and data journalist. Originally from south London, he lives in northern California and is a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley journalism school.

Sonya Dutta-Choudhury is a Mumbai based journalist. A post graduate in management from IIM Calcutta, Sonya specializes in business, education, people and books, and has written for Hindustan Times, Mint, The Hindu. She is also the author of Career Rules.

Teresa Carey is a staff writer at Freethink. Before becoming a journalist, she was a U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain and professional mariner. She works primarily on the Atlantic Ocean, and from a tiny desk in Annapolis. As a grad of the University of California Santa Cruz’s science communication graduate program, and a NatGeo Explorer, she loves tellingstories on the intersection of science, culture, and heart.

ALSO READ: Apply for UN video competition

THE GORDON PARKS Cohort:

This cohort of journalists is committed to telling the whole story through photography and film. Like their namesake, journalists in the Gordon Parks cohort use a variety of visual mediums to show what’s working across a wide variety of issue areas.

James (Jim) Tarzwell spent several years working in mental health in the Pacific Northwest, and is now returning to journalism with special attention to human rights, environmentalism, and trauma via photojournalism and longform narrative articles. He is attending school for journalism Previously, he worked on documentaries for local PBS stations and moonlighted as a freelance photographer for local sports.

Laura Mahler is a documentary filmmaker living in London. She’s been writing for as long as she can remember, and started in documentary filmmaking two years ago after doing an environmental research master’s program. She’s written forPositive News, Adventure Uncovered, and The Ecologist, and has worked on a couple of feature documentaries includingThe Street andHome.

Oliver Gordon is a London-based freelance journalist and photographer, and founder ofStruggles From Below, an online magazine shining a light on social change, development and sustainability initiatives, and the people behind them. He specializes in longform features and photo essays about social change, development and sustainability initiatives.

ALSO READ: Application opens for 2020 African Liberty Writing Fellowship 

Rachel Wisniewski is a Philadelphia-based, independent photojournalistwho aims to promote empathy, education, and support for underserved causes and people through her work. She most frequently covers topics related to gender and trauma, such as living with HIV/AIDS, the #MeToo movement, and LGBTQ+ rights. She is a frequent contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY, and has also worked with the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Vox, ESPN Undefeated, Vice, the New York Post, and more.

Sophie Roland is a Paris-based freelance journalist who has worked in French TV for more than 20 years, including on popular programs such as “Envoyé Spécial” and “Cash Investigation.” Last year, her investigative documentaries focused on French social housing and tax reforms, and she’s now developing a solutions-focused docuseries focused on how to make cities carbon neutral.

THE ANN CURRYS Cohort:

This cohort of journalists is committed to holding truth to power when it comes to human rights. Like their namesake, journalists in the Ann Currys cohort shine light on global injustices (and solutions too!) from around the world.

ALSO READ:Journalists can apply for $8,000 COVID-19 emergency fund

Ani Hao is a freelance and self-taught journalist, originally from New York and now based in Hong Kong. She wrote her first piece as a gut reaction to her feelings about political events in Brazil, and continued reporting about feminist movements in Brazil, before branching out to write about social uprisings in other contexts. She’s written for VICE,The Guardian, Teen Vogue, and Open Democracy.

Aina de Lapparent Alvarez, a French and Catalan journalist based in Paris, is doing a master’s program in Human Rights. She has bylines in Lebanon for The Daily Star, Beirut Today,and l’Agenda Culturel

Flora Garamvolgyi is an independent journalist from Los Angeles. She was studying journalism at ELTE University in Budapest, as well as in the U.K., at Canterbury Christ Church University. She’s written for The Guardian and many major Hungarian papers like Nepszava, Magyar Nemzet, and 24.hu. Until recently, she was mainly focusing on investigative pieces, diplomacy, and foreign affairs in Eastern Europe, but she would like to expand her portfolio with in-depth articles on human-rights issues.

ALSO READ: Apply for $1,500 public health reporting grants 2020

Marie Schulte-Bockum is a Munich-based freelance journalist and a communications manager at BurdaForward, a national digital publisher. Covering conflict zones and soccer are her key journalistic interests. She spent half a year studying and working in Tel Aviv and has been particularly interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for many years.

Chelli Stanley is an independent journalist based in the United States. She has done human rights work in the Middle East, mostly in Hebron and At-Tuwani. In the last year, she wrote several investigative pieces on the Jussie Smollett case.

THE RACHEL CARSONS Cohort: