These 10 fellows will receive solutions and leadership training from Solutions Journalism Network
By Ja’Nel Johnson-Phillips, Manager Training + Curriculum
If there’s one thing I’m passionate about, it’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Therefore, I was elated (and a little nervous) when I was asked to lead the next cohort of our Journalists of Color Fellowship. The program was designed to support 10 diverse, next-generation leaders by providing them with mentorship, leadership training and best practices for solutions journalism.
There was an overwhelming interest in the fellowship, which illustrates the importance of a program like this. At a time when many BIPOC journalists (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) are leaving the industry, here lies a unique opportunity for them to gather with like-minded individuals who are also navigating challenges revolving around their careers, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status.
The fellows in this cohort come from a wide range of backgrounds and work in several different areas of journalism. Please take the time to learn more about each talented journalist.
Asha Stuart is a documentary filmmaker and photographer whose work revolves around illuminating socio-cultural themes. With an unwavering dedication to storytelling, Asha has traversed the globe, capturing with her lens the raw essence of humanity in diverse contexts. Her work has appeared on Disney+, National Geographic, CNN, PBS, Time, Politico and more. She is a National Geographic Explorer, seamlessly merging her anthropological insights with her documentary craft.
Alizeh Kohari is an editorial coach at Global Press, a nonprofit newsroom, where she trains reporters from Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Her reporting from Pakistan, where she grew up, has appeared in The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, Wired, The Atlantic and other publications. Her work has been supported by the Pulitzer Center, Internews and the Overseas Press Club, has received national and international awards and is often featured on Longreads and Longform.org. For four years, Alizeh was a staffer at Herald, at the time Pakistan’s oldest current affairs magazine, where her reporting ran the gamut from investigating mob lynchings and murdered activists to a people’s history of the Indus River. Between 2015 and 2017, she was a Fulbright scholar at NYU; in the summer of 2016, she worked with Reuters in Mexico City. She holds an undergraduate degree in government and economics from the London School of Economics and is currently based in upstate New York.
Michael Butler, a business reporter for the Miami Herald, is fascinated with telling inclusive stories that reflect the diversity of the society in which we live. Over his career, he has reported on topics ranging from arts and culture to Black business, tech and real estate. The Temple University graduate’s work has appeared in publications such as ESPN’s Andscape, Okayplayer and EBONY. When he is not writing, Michael is an avid music lover and enjoys discussing his Panamanian heritage.
Nicole Chavez is a multiplatform journalist who reports, directs coverage of and edits stories that center on communities of color and inequality across the United States. She is a writer for CNN’s Race and Equality team in San Antonio. She covered the mass shootings in Uvalde and in her hometown of El Paso, and was previously a digital breaking news reporter.
A graduate of The University of Texas at El Paso, Nicole was a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman before joining CNN. She mentors young journalists and has worked in both English- and Spanish-language media outlets for over a decade.
Tacuma R. Roeback is the managing editor of the Chicago Defender. His journalism, nonfiction and fiction have appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tennessean, South Florida SunSentinel, Phoenix New Times, HipHopDX.com, Okayplayer, The Shadow League, “Encyclopedia of Identity,” Downstate Story, Tidal Basin Review, and Reverie: Midwest African American Literature. He is an alumnus of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Chicago State University and Florida A&M University. Tacuma lives in Chicago with his wife, Tracy, and two children, Kaila and Tremaine, Jr.
Helga Salinas is a digital journalist who’s worked in data visualization, news apps and audience engagement for local news outlets. She’s crisscrossed the U.S. learning about different places and different communities.
She was most recently audience engagement editor at CapRadio, where she built strategies for audiences to meaningfully engage with in-depth reporting projects and visuals. Before joining CapRadio, Helga was the engagement reporting fellow at ProPublica Illinois, where she was the engagement lead for “Driven into Debt,” an investigation of ticket debt and racial disparities in Chicago. She also worked at The Seattle Times, where she was the newspaper’s sole social media producer. There, she led the paper’s strategic efforts on Facebook and Twitter, and worked collaboratively with various teams in the newsroom on award-winning projects such as “Under Our Skin,” an interactive documentary that tackled uncomfortable conversations about race, identity and inclusion.
Helga received her master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She grew up in Southern California, where she graduated from UCLA with degrees in history and comparative literature, and was a part of La Gente, UCLA’s Latinx student newsmagazine.
Kamna Shastri is a community journalist, writer, audio producer and advocate for youth media. Currently she is a community outreach producer at KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Previously she has reported and produced pieces for Seattle media with an emphasis on hyperlocal outlets. Kamna has been a midcareer reporting fellow with NPR’s “Code Switch” and has spent many years working with youth journalists as a mentor and editor. She is passionate about advocating for communities to determine their own narratives and making space to explore the complexity around topics of identity and belonging. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Seattle’s neighborhoods, reading, dancing and time with friends over a cup of homemade chai.
Nasir Anthony Montalvo is managing editor of The Kansas City Defender — creating systems and processes for the newly formed abolitionist news outlet, engaging young, local Black writers and fundraising. At the same time, they pursue an archival project unearthing Black LGBTQIA2S+ Kansas City history entitled {B/qKC} — recently grant-funded by the University of Kansas and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Deeply committed to a praxis rooted in love, justice and radical change, Nasir uses a polymathic approach across their work to combat oppression. They graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science from their alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology, where they had an extensive history as a student organizer — founding their university’s first safe space for marginalized community members, starting a Black writers column in the campus newspaper, and leading protest efforts against Gianforte Family Hall (named after the governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, an alumnus).
Nasir and their work have been featured in The Advocate, GLAAD, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, NPR, HelloGiggles, Flatland KC and various other local and national outlets.
Nasir is queer, Boricua, and originally from Kissimmee, Florida.
Roberto Daza is an award-winning producer and cinematographer specializing in high-impact documentaries for television and the web.
Most recently, he produced investigations for VICE News on HBO and Showtime, many of which have won or been nominated for Emmys, including stories about a father in search of his missing children after the fall of ISIS’ caliphate, uprisings following the killing of George Floyd, and the pressure first responders faced during COVID’s first wave.
His work there saved a man from execution in Iraq and exposed decades of brutality by a police department in California to a national audience.
Roberto has also traveled the world for “The Naked Truth,” Fusion TV’s show on Netflix, which won a duPont-Columbia University Award and resulted in investigations into the radicalization of young people in Europe, the growing threat of fentanyl and the trafficking of student-athletes. The series has also been recognized by Scripps Howard Fund, the NIHCM Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
While at Univision, he led the network’s first collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — a deep dive into the World Bank and its investments in developing countries. That partnership won awards from the New York Press Club, the Online News Association and the Overseas Press Club.
Jennifer D. Sanders is an Emmy- and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning global journalist and documentary filmmaker, who is passionate about empowering people through visual storytelling. She is currently a news anchor at KXAN (NBC) in Austin, Texas.
Her work centers around education, solutions-based conversations and amplifying voices of underrepresented communities. Her documentary “Hidden History: The End of Syracuse’s 15th Ward” was the recipient of a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and a Syracuse Press Club award and was nominated for an Emmy. After the documentary aired, she spoke at conferences and panels around the U.S. discussing urban renewal, redlining and policies highlighted in the documentary that impact communities across the globe. In 2022, Jennifer won a Lone Star Emmy award in the news category for Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, for her special report entitled, “Housing History: Racial Displacement in Austin.” Her work has sparked important conversations that inspire change and inform legislation in the U.S.
As a former adjunct professor at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jennifer is passionate about mentoring youth and college students.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications/Spanish from Texas Lutheran University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Texas.
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