Now in its third year, AJI welcomes its new cohort of fellows who will train under AJI faculty and report for NOTUS, covering national politics and how Washington works.
May 7, 2025 — The Allbritton Journalism Institute (AJI) announced today 10 new fellows who will join its two-year program that trains the next generation of journalists through an unmatched educational program, personalized mentorship and on-the-ground reporting experience.
The new class, AJI’s third since its launch in May 2023, was selected from a highly competitive pool of nearly 700 applicants, a significant increase from last year’s applicant pool of just over 300.
The fellows come from a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds across the country and the world. They will be trained by some of the country’s most distinguished political reporters, while also working alongside the top-tier staff at NOTUS, AJI’s newsroom covering politics, policy and government.
The fellowship begins in the classroom with a full-time boot camp led by AJI’s distinguished faculty, which includes National Magazine Award winner Tim Alberta of The Atlantic, DeNeen L. Brown, award-winning staff writer at The Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize winner Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal and NPR investigative correspondent and senior editor Cheryl W. Thompson.
Classwork and lectures will continue as the fellows begin working in the NOTUS newsroom alongside experienced full-time staff reporters and editors, facilitating a teaching-hospital model that allows fellows to learn by doing at the highest journalistic level.
Fellows at AJI consistently make a mark in Washington and beyond the Beltway through their reporting for NOTUS.
They have written conversation-driving stories, including:
- An exposé of former President Biden’s fraying support within the Congressional Black Caucus, by Tinashe Chingarande and Calen Razor
- A report on White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s illicit campaign contributions from a failed run for Congress, by Claire Heddles
- A dispatch from an Alabama community plagued by environmental issues and a lack of federal funding, by Torrence Banks and staff reporter Anna Kramer
“NOTUS is different from every other news organization in town because we believe that democracy needs a new generation of journalists,” said Robert Allbritton, founder of AJI and NOTUS. “Our goal is to train and empower them. I am thrilled to welcome our new fellows, who will very quickly join our current fellows and reporters making a mark on Washington and beyond.”
“This year’s applicant class was an extremely impressive group overall, which forced us to make some very difficult decisions as we arrived at an extraordinary group of 10 fellows,” said Richard Just, AJI’s director of admissions and NOTUS’ managing editor for longform. “Throughout the admissions process, it was inspiring to see how many people remain determined to go into journalism for the most idealistic of reasons.”
He added, “We are especially grateful to all the journalism professors, student-media advisers, editors and mentors who helped us to spread the word about AJI and build such a competitive applicant pool.”
“I had the pleasure of getting to know our new class of fellows through an intense selection process,” said Kate Nocera, a NOTUS managing editor. “I am confident that our next class of 10 fellows will bring new energy to Washington reporting — informed by their wide-ranging backgrounds and experiences — and they’ll deliver invaluable journalism to NOTUS readers across the country.”
Meet the 2025-2027 fellows:
Hamed Ahmadi
Hamed grew up in Afghanistan, where he began his journalism career blogging in English and Farsi for an international nonprofit. He has been a fellow at HuffPost — covering daily news, immigration and Afghanistan — and a graduate fellow at American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop, where he reported on housing issues in D.C. He has also contributed to election data scraping for the Associated Press. Hamed is completing a master’s degree in international affairs and a graduate certificate in data science at AU and is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Lede Program for Data Journalism.
Adora Brown
Adora was born and raised in Columbia, Maryland. She is graduating this month from Emerson College with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and minors in hearing and deafness and nonprofit communication. She completed two internships with WGBH and interned full-time for six months at Boston.com, where she covered everything from union strikes to rooftop gardens to shipwrecked sand schooners. This summer, she will intern at The Baltimore Banner.
Christa Dutton
Christa grew up in Knightdale, North Carolina. She majored in English and minored in journalism at Wake Forest University. As editor in chief of the student newspaper, the Old Gold & Black, she directed and contributed reporting on campus tensions wrought by the Israel-Hamas war, the end of affirmative action and how professors’ social media activity tested the limits of free speech. She moved to Washington in 2024 and currently works at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she covers conservative efforts to reform higher education and political disputes that affect campus life.
Raymond Fernandez
Raymond was born in Venezuela. He is graduating this month from Baruch College with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in political science. Since arriving in the U.S., he has worked in construction, home care and hospitality. He has been a reporter and multimedia editor for Baruch’s online magazine Dollars & Sense and has interned at the New York Amsterdam News, where he covered the LGBTQ+ community, city politics and Latino issues. In his final year at Baruch, Raymond received the Arnold Picker Excellence Award in Journalism.
Torrie Herrington
Torrie grew up in Cabot, Arkansas. She is graduating this month from the University of Central Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations. At UCA, she was editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Echo, where she reported on local political races, a professor accused of misconduct, campus events and more. She has also interned at the Log Cabin Democrat, where she covered community events and nonprofits, and has been a fellow at the Teach the Shoah Foundation.
Avani Kalra
Avani was born and raised in Chicago. She majored in journalism and history and minored in Spanish at Northwestern University, where she served as editor in chief of The Daily Northwestern. She has interned at the Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bloomberg Law and the Wisconsin State Journal, covering everything from breaking news to health to ESG to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Jackie Llanos
Jackie was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and grew up in Virginia. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond, majoring in journalism and minoring in anthropology, and was editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Collegian. She is currently a reporter for the Florida Phoenix, where she covers health and immigration. Jackie’s coverage of racial justice issues on campus and Medicaid inefficiencies in Florida has earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Florida Society of News Editors.
Jade Lozada
Jade is a native New Yorker. She majored in social studies and Slavic languages and literature at Harvard College, where she served as magazine editor at large for The Harvard Crimson. She is a weekend correspondent for The Boston Globe, where she is set to intern this summer. She has also interned with the investigations team at WGBH, the Associated Press’s United Nations bureau and Civil.ge, an independent news site in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Manuela Silva
Manuela was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She is graduating this month from Barnard College, where she majored in Spanish and Latin American cultures and Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, while also taking classes at Columbia Journalism School. She was the city news editor at the Columbia Daily Spectator — where she covered housing, land use and education in West Harlem — and she has interned at the Bronx Times, American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop and Futuro Media Group.
Tyler Spence
Tyler was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. He graduated from Marshall University with a degree in multimedia journalism and public relations and a minor in political science. At Marshall, he was executive editor of the student newspaper, The Parthenon. He covered local politics for The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington before beginning his master’s degree in investigative journalism at Indiana University. While in Indiana, Tyler was a fellow at The Indianapolis Star, news editor at the Indiana Daily Student and a fellow at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism.
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Professional journalists interested in working with AJI and NOTUS should contact executive director Tim Grieve at tim@aji.org.
Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the work of AJI and NOTUS should contact development director Kevin Grant at kevingrant@aji.org.
AJI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization.
Media Contact:
Justin Peligri
justinpeligri@aji.org
(201) 566-2454