Our Fellows
Class of 2024-2026 | Class of 2025-2027
Class of 2025-2027
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 for a reporting fellowship at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she covered conservative efforts to reform higher education and political disputes that affect campus life.
Raymond Fernández
Raymond was born in Venezuela. He graduated 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 was a reporter and multimedia editor for Baruch’s online magazine Dollars & Sense and 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 covering immigration for NOTUS after a two-year stint at the Florida Phoenix, where she also covered immigration and health. 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.