A support group and a lab in the St. Louis area provide resources for people with the allergy to mammal products — and evidence that its effects can be reversed.
Hi there! I'm the Desk's assistant director, Annie Ropeik. I'm thrilled today to announce the 10 journalists who will work with the Desk from all across the basin. They're all corps members with Report for America, a national journalism service organization. Starting June 1, these reporters will cover individual beats for their host newsrooms and work with the Desk's Expert Journalists, Senior Advisors and Editorial Director Tegan Wendland on collaborative regional and national projects.
As assistant director, I'll support the team by planning some great trainings for these reporters and by building our distribution network to share their stories far and wide. You can get in touch with me any time at annie@agwaterdesk.org, and I'm on Twitter @aropeik. I can't wait to start working with our new journalists and share their work with you. Read on to meet the reporters (and me!) and stay tuned...
Report for America Corps Members:
Keely Brewer,Daily Memphian, Memphis, Tenn. Brewer is a recent graduate of The University of Alabama, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in news media and served as editor-in-chief of The Crimson White. While there, Brewer launched a campus investigation into COVID-19 reporting tools in partnership with the Poynter Institute. She interned at The Tuscaloosa News and has reported on the impact of faith-based diabetes programs at the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.
Mónica Cordero Sancho,Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, Champaign, Ill. Cordero’s work has been published by Univision, Bloomberg Businessweek, La Noticia, Radio Ambulante, NPR, openDemocracy and The New York Times. Born in Costa Rica, she is a graduate of the University of Costa Rica and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Cordero was part of a team that won the 2020 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award, the most prestigious journalism prize in the Spanish-speaking world, for best investigative reporting.
Connor Giffin,The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky. While earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Giffin contributed to “Lost on the Frontline,” an award-winning collaborative project from Kaiser Health News and The Guardian documenting the deaths of frontline health care workers during the pandemic. He also reported on state government and the environment for the Columbia Missourian.
Bennet Goldstein,Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Madison, Wis. Goldstein has worked for the Omaha World Herald in Nebraska and daily papers in Iowa, including the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Goldstein’s work has garnered awards including the Associated Press Media Editors award and an Iowa Newspaper Association award. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Madeline Heim,Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis. Heim previously reported on health and science for the Appleton Post-Crescent and the USA Today network in Wisconsin. Her coverage of the pandemic earned top honors from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. She holds degrees in journalism and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was editor-in-chief of The Daily Cardinal. Heim has interned at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and reported for the Winona Daily News in Winona, Minnesota.
Chloe Johnson, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn. Johnson previously reported on the environment and climate change for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina. She started her career at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and holds a journalism degree from American University. Her work has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Society for Features Journalism and she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Brittney Miller, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Miller earned a master’s degree in science writing and communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. There, she wrote about science for Nature, Knowable Magazine and the Monterey Herald, and she was named a fellow at The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and an ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Scholar. Miller holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and journalism from the University of Florida.
Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco,Northern Public Radio – WNIJ, Dekalb, Ill. Ramirez-Franco covers water quality and climate change in the region north of the Illinois River. He has also been a bilingual facilitator at StoryCorps in Chicago, and reported on the Pilsen neighborhood as a fellow at City Bureau. Before that, he was a production intern at the Third Coast International Audio Festival and the rural America editorial intern at In These Times magazine. He is a graduate of Knox College.
Josh Rosenberg,The Lens, New Orleans, La. Rosenberg reported on federal tax policy for the legal newswire Law360, tracking down stories in the halls of Congress before moving into a more features-oriented role. As a 2014 Teach For America corps member, he taught high school history in Indianapolis. Rosenberg hails from Roxbury, New Jersey, and he earned his undergraduate degree in history and secondary education from William Paterson University, and holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University.
Eva Tesfaye, Harvest Public Media, Kansas City, Mo. Tesfaye was a producer at NPR’s daily science podcast “Short Wave.” As an NPR Kroc fellow, she produced for “Weekend Edition,” reported for NPR’s national desk, helped start a podcast about the federal executions carried out under the Trump administration for NPR member station WFIU, and reported from Birmingham, Alabama, for the Gulf States Newsroom. Tesfaye joined NPR after graduating from Columbia University with a bachelor’s in English and a minor in French and Francophone studies.
And now, here's a bit about me...
Annie Ropeik joins the Ag & Water Desk as assistant director after a decade as an award-winning environmental journalist at public radio stations and regional collaboratives in New England, Indiana, the Mid-Atlantic and Alaska. She most recently reported for Spectrum News Maine after four years with New Hampshire Public Radio, where she created the newsroom's climate reporting initiative, covered wildfire adaptation for NPR and co-hosted the podcast series "Windfall." Ropeik grew up in Maryland, graduated from Boston University and now lives in Portland, Maine.
All the best, Annie Ropeik Ag & Water Desk Assistant Director @agwaterdesk
