The fellows will learn alongside the best journalists in Washington and report for NOTUS.
June 8, 2026 — The Allbritton Journalism Institute announced today 12 new fellows who will join its two-year journalism training program.
The new class, AJI’s fourth since its launch in May 2023, was selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 600 applicants.
“I’ve never felt more excited about the future of journalism than when I was reviewing this year’s applicant class and interviewing our candidates,” said Alyssa Rosenberg, the dean of AJI.
Rosenberg added: “There are so many early-career journalists with great ideas and creative approaches to reporting and storytelling. And we’re grateful for all the conversations we had with professors, student journalism advisers and editors around the country about how to build robust professional pipelines and training programs to support this vital profession.”
Upon completion of the two year fellowship, fellows have obtained jobs at blue-chip news organizations including Bloomberg, Pew Research Center, Politico, Punchbowl News, The Hill, the Miami Herald and The Baltimore Sun.
Meet the 2026-2028 fellows:
Ayah Ali-Ahmad
After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2025, Ayah joined KQED as a yearlong intern, where she covered San Francisco’s teacher strike and housing development in the Bay Area. Ayah served as city government beat reporter and deputy news editor at The Daily Californian. She has also worked as a Dow Jones fellow and business reporter at Oakland Voices.
Nicole Belcastro
Since graduating from Emerson College in 2024, Nicole has freelanced for The Boston Globe, among other regional publications, and worked as a substitute teacher for the New York City public schools. As a journalist, she’s talked her way into a prison and an NBA player’s house and covered the rise of sports betting.
Kyle Chouinard
During his time at Syracuse University, from which he graduated in 2024, Kyle was managing editor of The Daily Orange, interned for City & State New York and was chosen for the Carnegie-Knight New 21 program. After graduating, Kyle covered Clark County, Nevada, for the Las Vegas Sun, where he focused on state politics, immigration and the expansion of ICE activity. Most recently, he has worked as a reporter for Nancy on Norwalk in Connecticut.
Ellie Fivas
After graduating from Emory University this May, Ellie interned at the Georgia Recorder. Previously she was an intern at CNN and editor-in-chief of The Emory Wheel, where she began the process of converting the paper into an independent nonprofit. In Emory’s Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, Ellie uncovered new revelatory new biographical details about a judge who played a key role in the prosecution of a police officer who was accused of murdering a Black preacher.
Will Hofmann
When Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina in 2024, Will, a reporter at the Asheville Citizen-Times, was in the middle of the story. Among his investigations was an exploration of mismanagement of Haven on the Hill, a private community that poorly treated its occupants. Will graduated from Appalachian State University in 2023.
Paige Huffman
A senior program associate at the Commonwealth Fund, Paige was drawn to health care policy by her family’s personal experiences. She completed a program at the University of Toronto for field experts who want to learn reporting skills and has published multiple articles in the British Medical Journal. Paige graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2018.
Yasmeen Khan
As a public policy reporting fellow at The Maine Monitor, Yasmeen covered the intersection of the state’s economy with policies meant to help victims of domestic violence. At Harvard University, from which she graduates this spring, Yasmeen helped revitalize Fifteen Minutes, the Crimson’s weekly magazine, and covered gender politics as a Berta Greenwald Ledecky fellow at Harvard Magazine.
Domonique King
A native of Hinesville, Georgia, Domonique graduated from Mercer University this spring. She has been a summer fellow at The Current and a reporter at The Macon Newsroom. Domonique has reported on Gullah-Geechee communities on Sapelo Island, Georgia, shadowed a private investigator and covered a shooting at the Fort Stewart military base near where she grew up.
Andrea Padilla
At the University of Richmond, from which Andrea graduated this month, she served as managing editor of The Collegian. For the Capital News Service, she covered the Virginia General Assembly, reporting on everything from a new Lego factory to details about post-Dobbs privacy laws. Andrea has been a copy-editing intern at The Boston Globe and a reporting intern for WRIC in Richmond, Virginia, and for WRDE CoastTV News in Milton, Delaware.
Chase Pellegrini de Paur
After growing up in New York and Connecticut, Chase attended Duke Kunshan University in China and Duke University. Since graduating in 2023, Chase has been a fellow and then a staff writer at Indy Week and The Assembly in North Carolina, where he’s covered politics and education. During his time there, he contributed to NOTUS Perspectives’ series on key 2026 races.
Hunter Riggall
Hunter is currently the investigative reporter at the Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia, where he has covered Cobb County’s chronically homeless population and used data to explain the COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on the county’s transit system. He was previously a reporter for the LaGrange Daily News and the editor-in-chief of the University of Georgia’s student newspaper, The Red & Black.
Emma Ruby
As a news reporter at the Dallas Observer, Emma covered the countdown to the execution of a man who had been convicted of shaking his 2-year-old daughter to death — and his ultimate reprieve. Since graduating from Loyola University in 2022, Emma has served as an editor at the Oak Cliff Advocate. At both outlets, she’s reported on Texas politics and local economic development. In college, Emma was a staff writer at The Maroon and an intern at The Dallas Morning News and InvestigateTV.
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AJI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization that does not charge tuition for the two-year fellowship experience. Instead, these costs are covered by philanthropic donors, and NOTUS pays fellows a $60,000 annual stipend for fellows’ work reporting for the publication.
Individuals and organizations interested in supporting AJI should contact Executive Director Kevin Grant at kevingrant@aji.org. AJI also accepts donations via GoFundMe here.