Who we are

Tina Rosenberg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. She co-authors the Fixes column in The New York Times “Opinionator” section. Her books include "Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America," and "The Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts After Communism," which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. She has written for dozens of magazines, including The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic. She is the author, most recently, of "Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World."

David Bornstein is a journalist and author who focuses on social innovation. He co-authors the "Fixes" column in The New York Times "Opinionator" section. His books include "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas," "The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank," and "Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know."

Courtney E. Martin is an author, blogger, and speaker living in Oakland. She is also the author of five books, including "Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists," and "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women." She is Editor Emeritus at Feministing.com, and her work has recently appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and MORE Magazine, among other national publications. Courtney has appeared on the TODAY Show, Good Morning America, MSNBC, and The O’Reilly Factor, and speaks widely. She is the recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and a residency from the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre. She is also a facilitator for The Op-Ed Project and a strategist for the TED Prize.

Allen Arthur is a graduate of the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY. An alum of their innovative Social Journalism program, he’s passionate about building trust both on- and offline. Most recently, he led audience development at Documented, a journalism startup covering immigration in New York. As a journalist, he works with currently and formerly incarcerated people. His work has appeared in The Marshall Project, USA Today, YES! Magazine, Documented, and The Crime Report. He also hosts The Art of Return, a live show for formerly incarcerated artists.

Saira is a marketing and communications professional with a background in writing and editing. She has a passion for learning about the field of economic justice and wants to amplify journalism that offers solutions for systemic inequalities. She has an undergraduate degree in journalism and political science, and a master's degree in media management. She lives in Philadelphia but will always be a New Yorker at heart. In her spare time, which she has very little of after keeping up with two preschoolers, she enjoys re-watching The Office, reading, and napping.

Eva holds a B.A. in Global Studies from the International University, Long Island University - Global College. Over the course of her education, she spent four years traveling across five continents, cultivating an intellectually open disposition towards the culturally and academically unique perspectives she encountered. Eva comes to SJN with a reinvigorated passion for storytelling, research, collaborative innovation, and data analysis to create quality material that will set in motion positive social change. 

Delaney joined SJN in March 2018 as the administrative associate for the Practice Change team. Previously, she worked at Prudential Financial's Office of Corporate Social Responsibility where she held coordination and support roles in the Spirit of Community Awards program and the Prudential Foundation. She graduated with a degree in English and American Literature from New York University's College of Arts and Sciences. 

Email me about our Local Media Project initiative (or the initiative team) and anything about our work with news collaboratives.

Melissa Cassutt has over a decade of media experience in the West (and briefly, Florida), most recently serving as Deputy Editor at the Jackson Hole News&Guide. In 2016 she was named the Wyoming Press Association’s Young Journalist of the Year; in 2019 she was awarded a Wyoming Woman of Influence Award in Media and Communications.She recently combined her passion for media and the outdoors, joining the First Hunt Foundation-Wyoming as the Communications Coordinator. She also sits on the advisory board of the Wyoming Women's Foundation and the executive committee of the Jackson Hole-based nonprofit, Womentum. In 2019 she restarted the Wyoming Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and sits as its president. When she's not thinking about journalism, she's thinking about dogs, and when she's not doing either of those things she's backpacking, fly-fishing, hunting, kayaking or aspiring to become a falconer.

Sara teaches journalism as an adjunct at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, serves on the program committee for the JSK Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, where she was a fellow, and supports the Online News Association Women's Leadership Accelerator as a mentor and speaker. Her journalism experience includes digital leader and newsroom manager, grounded in years of reporting and writing at a wide range of news outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Mother Jones, the LA Weekly and NBC. She is the author of a forthcoming memoir about growing up in Bronzeville on Chicago's South Side. 

Email me about incorporating solutions journalism into teaching and student newsroom advising at colleges and universities, and for more information about joining our network of journalism educators.

Catherine Cheney first learned about SJN through her work at NationSwell, a company that elevates the stories of people solving problems across the United States. She helped grow SJN’s presence on the West Coast, where she is also a correspondent for Devex, the media platform for the global development community. In addition to her own reporting on topics including technology and philanthropy, through her work with SJN, Catherine supports other journalists to cover responses to problems. She has worked for POLITICO, Al-Monitor, and World Politics Review, with freelance work appearing in publications including The Washington Post and The Atlantic. Catherine graduated from Yale University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science and distinction as a Yale Journalism Scholar. 

Leslie is a multimedia journalist and editor who focuses on social identity, environmental justice and public health policy. She's passionate about media ethics and community engagement and has consulted with organizations and individuals about ways to build trust with underreported and underrepresented communities through creative outreach strategies and the reshaping of relationships. She believes that storytelling is the rare art that has the power to broaden and change minds and can foster lasting connections between different perspectives. Over the course of her career she's lived in four states and reported from four different continents, developing a deep interest for better understanding how personal experiences impact the way people think about news, democracy and events in the world. Leslie earned her undergraduate degrees in communication and psychology at UC Davis and her master's degree at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Jefferson comes to SJN from the Bowery Residents’ Committee, a large non-profit in the Human Services sector where he was responsible for General Ledger Maintenance in relation to Government grants. He graduated from CUNY Queens College with a Bachelor’s in Accounting. Hobbies include watching a good baseball game, or catching a good movie at the cinema.

Michael Davis has held an array of top leadership and creative positions at digital news sites, magazines, newspapers and broadcasting outlets. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University during the 1986-87 academic year. Later he wrote the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller “Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street” and is a co-executive producer of the feature-length documentary film adapted from the book. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he later taught as an adjunct professor. He describes himself as a storyteller who helps others become better storytellers.

Nina was first involved professionally in humanitarian work as a trainer and manager in France and abroad. Her research in the field on engagement and altruism led her to work as an editor, writing articles. From 2011 to 2015, she worked in Russia as the chief web editor of a French newspaper. She’s now based in France and is the author of the book "Nomade des mers, les escales de l'innovation," a world tour of low-tech solutions to basic needs. She is also supporting the famous French explorer and scientist Jean Malaurie in his projects with Inuits in Russia. She believes the "investigative path" that solutions journalism has taken in the U.S. is the right one, and that's why she has represented the Solutions Journalism Network in Europe since October 2016, training journalists across countries and giving newsroom workshops.

Email me if you're a journalist/editor based in Europe who wants to get more info on our trainings, events, and possible collaborations.

Michelle Faust Raghavan is SJN's Equity Initiative Manager. She came to the organization as the Pacific West Coast Region Manager. Before that, Michelle spent about a decade reporting on policy issues and hosting for public media stations across the country. Most recently, she covered health care policy at 89.3 KPCC Southern California Public Radio. Prior to moving to California, she worked at WCPN/WVIZ in Cleveland, Ohio and WXXI in Rochester, New York as part of the regional journalism collaborative Side Effects Public Media. Michelle’s broadcast career launched at KAWC in Yuma, Arizona where she hosted Morning Edition. Michelle is passionate about mentorship and is actively involved with NPR’s Next Generation Radio project. 

Liza Gross is a journalist and media leader with over three decades of experience working in executive positions at news organizations and non profits. She has specialized in the transition of traditional news outlets to multimedia platforms, as well as in the exploration of new and transformational models for media organizations, including collaborative arrangements and innovative techniques of audience engagement. She was Managing Editor of The Miami Herald, Executive Editor of El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico, and Publisher of Exito!, the Spanish language publication of the Chicago Tribune. As Executive Director and past board member of the International Women’s Media Foundation, she worked to support female journalists operating in conflict zones and to create professional opportunities for women in the media industry. She is a past board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and has conducted seminars and trainings for journalists in the United States, Latin America and Europe.

Email me about newsroom partnerships, collaboratives, revenue and organizational models, and funding for solutions journalism projects in the U.S. and globally.

Sarah Gustavus came to the Solutions Journalism Network after more than a decade in public radio and television. She’s passionate about collaborative journalism and has led projects that included print, radio and online partners. Before joining SJN, she was a senior multimedia producer at New Mexico PBS and produced stories for the State of Change and Small Towns, Big Change collaborative projects that used solutions reporting to examine resilience in rural communities. Sarah also has extensive experience covering Indigenous issues and was previously the executive producer of national programs at Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, a Native American-owned company. In 2017, as a national fellow with the Center for Reporting on Health, she worked with National Native News to produce the multimedia series “Reconnecting With A Healthy Lifestyle.” Sarah lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Keith Hammonds comes to SJN from Ashoka, where he started and led the News & Knowledge Initiative, advancing the work of hundreds of social entrepreneurs in media around the world. He also has been Executive Editor at Fast Company Magazine; a bureau chief and editor for BusinessWeek in Boston and New York; a writer for The New York Times in London and Johannesburg; a consultant to New Nation in Johannesburg; director of an emergency food distribution program in Namibia; and coach of the Firebolts, a fearsome girls soccer team. In his spare time, Keith owns and publishes The Boulder Monitor, the leading newspaper in Jefferson County, Montana.

Hélène Biandudi Hofer is a broadcast journalist, a documentary filmmaker, and a media entrepreneur. Prior to joining The Complicated Narratives Project she spent nearly a decade reporting for public television and radio. Hélène anchored and produced the PBS news show, Need to Know , on WXXI Television in Rochester, New York, and contributed to feature reports for NPR. In the commercial news realm, she worked for CBS News President, Susan Zirinsky, at the CBS Primetime show 48 Hours Mystery . Hélène is the owner of HBH Enterprises, a production company and media group she founded which creates and produces short films about issues that matter and stories that often go untold.

Julia Hotz is a journalist who's reported solutions-focused stories for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Scientific American, Fast Company,  VICE, Next City, and more. With her podcast-partner-in-coolness, Jay Woodward, she cohosts "Google, Tell Me Something Good" -- a daily newscast exploring what's working. Before joining SJN, she wore many non-journalism hats, including: high school English teacher, bartender, pizza shop waitress, math tutor, and summer camp "forest ranger" for five-year-olds who wanted to do everything but be in a forest.  She's a proud alum of both University of Cambridge and Union College. 

Email me to learn more about SJN's communities, including our mentorship program or LEDE fellowship. 

Before joining SJN, Ja'Nel assisted in the creation of KXTV’s Race and Culture Team. Ja’Nel has long had a passion for reporting on the Black experience and elevating the voices of underrepresented communities. During her time as a reporter, she created a wide range of stories for radio, television and digital platforms. As a digital content producer for KXTV, she produced content about California becoming the first state to ban discrimination based on hairstyle and hair texture, examined how marijuana prohibition blocks Black and Hispanic people from the legal cannabis industry, and questioned whether the Oscars are still relevant if people of color aren’t recognized. While working at Louisville Public Media, she underscored the health and wellness challenges facing many Black people in Kentucky by producing “Sick & Tired: A Series Examining Health Disparities Among Black People in Kentucky.” Ja’Nel also served as news director for KVNO.

Maurisse Johnson has held a number of finance & financial systems roles and comes to us from NYCHA where he managed the capital planning and environmental review process. Over the years Maurisse has worked with a few companies in different capacities including Burson Marsteller where he was the Director of Financial Planning & Reporting, Parsons Brinckerhoff where he was the Manager of Reporting & Systems and J.Crew where he was the Director of Financial Systems. Maurisse is a husband, father and a big NY Jets fan. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Concordia University.

Kyuwon is a journalist and ethnographer from Seoul whose coverage includes issues of two Koreas, East Asia and cultural transformation in globalized context. He started his career as an intern reporter for Dong-A Ilbo, a Seoul-based newspaper. His past projects varied from an anthropological study on Mexico's K-pop audience (supervised by Arjun Appadurai) to interviewing 26 North Korean defectors who had been formerly incarcerated in North Korea's prison (led by Asan Institute for Policy Studies). In 2016, Moonhee Cho and he co-launched a mobile-based news publication, Issue & Paper which aimed to make the findings of academic papers more accessible and social-friendly. He is a former Sergeant of the Republic of Korea Air Force, graduate of Yonsei University and Fulbright scholar to New York University.

Lysandra is a Communication and Events Specialist for the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center at the University of Nebraska College of Law in Lincoln. Previously, she worked as a reporter for the Seward County Independent covering local politics and rural communities in Southeast Nebraska before pivoting to work with an ag land appraisal software start-up. Lysandra holds a B.A. in Psychology and M.M.C. in Journalism and Mass Communications from Arizona State University. Her claim to fame is hailing from the winter lettuce capital of the world—Yuma, AZ.

Samantha McCann has worked with SJN since 2013, the organization's founding year. Previously, she worked in environmental and fiscal policy research at Seattle University. She has published in The Journal of International Affairs, Scholastic, The Guardian, PRI, & others, and authored the text of an award-winning book of photography, "Columbia University in Pictures." She holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. in political science from Seattle University.

Amy is the Region Collaborative Manager for the Local Media Project. She oversees local collaborations in the West and parts of the Midwest. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and has more than 30 years of experience as a journalist for newspapers and magazines. Amy spent a little more than a year as the digital editor at The Salt Lake Tribune, helping it transition to a nonprofit news organization. Before that, she worked for 23 years The Durango Herald in Durango, Colo. She started out as a reporter and eventually became executive editor. She oversaw the company's three general interest newspapers; a weekly alternative magazine, which she founded; and a quarterly outdoor recreation magazine. She is a Knight-Wallace Fellow Class of '17 at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying the future of local news.

Karen Magnuson most recently served as executive editor of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, NY, and state editor for the USA TODAY Network. Magnuson is known as a relentless champion for the news industry through her many years of service as a board member and president of the Associated Press Media Editors, and as a board member and co-chair of the Diversity Committee for the American Society of News Editors. Magnuson joined the board of Journalism That Matters, a national organization devoted to inclusive community engagement, in January 2019. She earned a Master of Science in innovation management from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2012. She joined RIT’s Management Department Advisory Board in 2017 and has served the Saunders College of Business as executive in residence since January 2019. She’s also a member of the Board of Trustees for her undergraduate alma mater, Alma College in Michigan.

Kristen is the Salesforce Database Assistant to SJN, graduating with a BS in Geology from the College of William and Mary. Her previous work was in Operations/Database Management at the College of William and Mary, and Project Management at the International Headquarters of Covenant House (meaning she has never met a spreadsheet/CRM she didn’t like). She has a strong penchant for data governance-recognizing the necessity of reliable, integrity-focused, relevant data, and takes great care in this work. (Outside of her work, she is also a vocalist and guitarist, one could say a data management specialist by day-musician by night.)

A print and broadcast journalist, media trainer, and consultant, Ruona's work has been featured on several outlets including the BBC, the Financial Times, Reuters, and Deutsche Welle. She was named Nigeria’s Investigative Journalist of the Year in 2013, and was Nigeria’s first Emmy Award nominee for her work on “Sweet, Sweet Codeine,” a 2018 documentary on drug abuse in Nigeria for BBC Africa Eye. Ruona is also a PhD scholar researching African-Diaspora investigative journalism networks.

Taylor Nelson has worked with SJN since 2013. As Vice President of Knowledge Dissemination, she directs SJN's Knowledge Dissemination program aimed at accelerating the diffusion of solutions stories into society and, in turn, build demand for more and higher-quality solutions reporting. Since 2015, she has spearheaded the design, development, and expansion of SolutionsU.org. Taylor cares about better connecting you with solutions stories about responses to problems that you care about and/or your community is currently facing. She's a design thinking and StrengthsFinder enthusiast, who loves a good flow chart (and cup of coffee). Taylor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Community Studies from the College of William and Mary.

Katherine Noble-Goodman is a writer, educator and social entrepreneur. She has reported on philanthropy, education, religion, and the environment; taught environmental studies and green business; and collaborated with nonprofits on clean cook stove and biochar projects. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is the founder of a social-benefit enterprise that brings evidence-based, “no-sweat” yoga and meditation to the workplace. She earned her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley and master’s degrees at Duke University and the University of Redlands.

Email me about creating assignments using stories about what’s working or hosting a SolutionsU webinar.

Mark is a journalist whose work in recent years has focused on long-form solutions narratives about community violence prevention and other aspects of criminal justice policy. He has written for The Atlantic, Longreads, The New York Times, The Trace, Politico Magazine, Slate, and others. Based in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region, near his Rochester, New York, hometown, he has been a reporter and editor at daily, weekly, monthly, and online publications in New York City, Dallas, and Houston and he also taught magazine journalism full-time at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. He is a longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, is a board member of Criminal Justice Journalists, and is a contributor to The Crime Report, published by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and to Crime and Justice News, hosted at Arizona State University. He earned his master’s from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Sonja Petrovic comes to SJN from Imagine Better, a non-profit specializing in using storytelling and ritual in activism. While at Imagine Better, she worked on campaigns as lighthearted as a Star Wars-themed Teacher Appreciation holiday to ones as serious as Heroes Wear Vests, which sought to bring recognition to exploited port drivers in LA and Long Beach. She holds a master's in English from Brooklyn College. In her spare time, she can be found writing, baking, and making mixtapes, like it’s still the nineties.

Kyle is the Program Assistant for the National Association for Media Literacy Education. Originally from Syracuse, NY, he got his start as a journalist at Boston University where he earned his B.S. in Journalism with minors in History and Political Science. His first job, as a political reporter in New Hampshire covering the 2016 presidential election, introduced him to media literacy and how the spread of misinformation threatens democracy. Kyle took that passion with him to Science News, a nonprofit magazine covering advances in science, medicine and technology, where he served as the Editorial Assistant. As a journalist, Kyle is passionate about the intersection of journalism and education, and how he can work with others on addressing the challenges relating to trust and truth in the digital age.

Alane Presswood earned her doctorate in Rhetoric and Public Culture from Ohio University in 2017. Before joining SJN, she spent seven years as a university instructor in Communication Studies and worked as a freelance public speaking consultant. She recently published her first book, Food Blogs, Postfeminism, and the Communication of Expertise: Digital Domestics. Alane lives in Brooklyn, NY with her small dog Ruby, and when not engaged in discussions on higher education and/or best communication practices, she enjoys loose leaf tea, rollerblading, Russian literature, and soapy teen dramas on television.

Alice Quinn comes to SJN from a community-based energy efficiency non-profit and has a background in film production. She's organized national grassroots screenings of the Emmy-winning / Oscar-Nominated documentary film GASLAND, and worked on the production of the film, GASLAND II. From there, Alice has worked on social issue documentaries and fiction projects alike and is passionate about storytelling, social and environmental justice, sustainability, and community building. She holds a BA in Social Thought and Political Economy from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Carolyn is a video journalist, media development program director and educator. She began her career with CNN’s medical news unit in Atlanta before relocating to Asia and the Middle East, first as a senior news producer in Hong Kong, and then in East Timor, where she ran the local TV station for the United Nations. She was the Internews Program Director in post-revolution Libya, overseeing journalism training projects in Tripoli and Benghazi. She has received a Jefferson Fellowship, a Freedom Forum Fellowship and four Knight International Journalism Fellowships, and has trained journalists in almost two dozen countries around the world. 

Email me about newsroom partnerships in the Midwest, solutions journalism in East Africa, and anything to do with broadcast solutions journalism.

Jennifer is a sociologist and research consultant based out of San Diego, CA.  She received her PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University and teaches courses on social problems, gender & sexuality, and social movements, as well as more technical courses on social science research methods and statistics.  Some of her main research projects and publications have looked at the impact of social policies aimed at increasing women’s representation in national governments, the economic and social legacies of colonialism, and political tolerance in a global perspective.  As a research and data analyst, Jenn has supported projects dealing with human trafficking, violence against women, international LGBTQI activism, culturally competent approaches to humanitarian re-building in conflict zones, and labor organizing in the United States.  She is a self-professed ‘data nerd’ and is passionate about using her technical skills to create tools that foster community building and engage people to support one another.   

Alec Saelens is passionate about aligning editorial and business objectives behind public service journalism. He leads a project that will help endangered local newsrooms do solutions journalism and develop revenue streams around that reporting approach. Before coming to SJN, he worked as a researcher for the Membership Puzzle Project (MPP), publishing articles about media governance models and engagement strategies. As part of the Membership in News Fund, he coached The Devil Strip (Akron, OH) in their transition towards a cooperative model. Alec is a co-founder of The Bristol Cable, the UK’s pioneering local media cooperative launched in 2014, where he worked as a journalist and operations coordinator until 2018. He also worked as an analyst for NewsGuard, a company reviewing information websites based on their reliability and transparency.

Elizabeth Share is a trusted advisor to philanthropists, a highly successful fundraiser and an innovative strategist known for her ability to foster and steward groundbreaking collaborations. She is the founder and principal of the philanthropic consulting practice Wise Giving, and prior to joining SJN, was the Chief Development Officer for The Center for Investigative Reporting. Previously, Elizabeth helped found and lead the Autodesk Foundation, a corporate foundation focused on K-12 education reform. Elizabeth has served as a Master Coach for Exponential Fundraising at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she also holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley.

Linda Shaw works with newsrooms on solutions-focused reporting on elections, democracy and education. As editorial director, she also works to expand and improve the support SJN offers its growing network of newsrooms. Before SJN, Linda worked at The Seattle Times, where she oversaw Education Lab, an initiative that rigorously examines promising approaches to education’s toughest problems. Linda has worked as a reporter and an editor, mostly at The Seattle Times and mostly on coverage of public schools. In 2008, she was named beat reporter of the year for large newspapers by the Education Writers Association and in 2011-12, she was a Spencer Education fellow at Columbia University. In 2016, she helped create a multimedia project on race called “Under Our Skin.”

Email me about solutions-focused reporting on elections, democracy and education and/or newsroom support for solutions journalism.

Mikhael Simmonds is a freelance multimedia journalist who specializes in international reporting. He is also the co-founder of Harlem Focus, a multimedia blog/media lab used as a learning tool at the City College of New York, where he taught reporting classes. Over the years, Simmonds has worked with a number of news and non-for-profit organizations including Democracy Now!, GritTV, Seeds of Africa, the YMCA International, and the UN Department of Public Information and NGO Relations. He has also worked closely with the New York Amsterdam News, a 106-year-old Harlem-based African American Newspaper.

Email me about newsroom partnerships in the North East and solutions journalism visual storytelling. 

In this role, Keri is building a data informed culture and directing policy and process for SJN's evolving data governance practice. She creates, maintains, and continuously refines SJN's analytics structure and stewards the display and representation of organizational metrics (both for SJN's program managers and to ensure accordance with SJN's strategic plan). SJN’s mission to uncover “what’s working” is close to her heart, and she has loved working with the SJN team (and reading solutions journalism stories) since 2013. She is earning her M.S. degree of Sustainability in the Urban Environment at The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at City College of New York. Keri is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association unions, a relic of her former life as a professional dancer. The only dancing she does nowadays is the bedtime shuffle with her twin toddlers.

Email me about our organizational metrics, how we use Salesforce, or anything related to software management.

Lita Tirak leads SJN's Solutions Specialists, oversees the Story Tracker database, and the curation of stories. In 2016, she received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. While at the College, she taught university-level seminars in visual culture, served as Research Assistant for Swem Library, and was the Assistant Director of the Global Film Festival. Previously, she worked at George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY, where she performed research roles in the Departments of Photograph Conservation, Education, and Development. Lita is a researcher, writer, curator, and creative problem-solver, interested in sharing the bright ideas found in SJN’s stories.

Email me with your questions about the Story Fellowship, our Story Tracker database, or story submission criteria.

Leah Todd is the New England region manager for the Solutions Journalism Network, building relationships with newsrooms in the New England states. From 2015 to 2018, Leah led SJN’s work in the Intermountain West, including launching and overseeing collaborative journalism projects between dozens of news organizations in Montana and New Mexico. Previously, she covered K-12 education at The Seattle Times, and local government at the Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune. She has investigated and written about turmoil in Washington state’s new charter school sector; efforts to improve disproportionately high absentee rates among Native American students in Wyoming; Colorado’s attempts to divert mental health patients from overcrowded Emergency Rooms; and how residents in rural communities across the West find and use local news.

Email me about solutions journalism trainings and newsroom partnerships in the New England states.

Elizabeth comes to SJN with a dual background in social science research, as well as print and digital media. She has previously worked at Yale University Press, the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Ashoka, and documentary film company Momentofilm. She holds an M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University. 

Email me about case studies, curriculum, the impact of solutions journalism and SJN's work, and questions about our website (including bug alerts).

Alejandra comes to SJN from the performing arts industry, where she worked in an operational capacity for play publishing and licensing company Samuel French, and marketing and catalog development for Concord Music Publishing. Her work for these organizations focused on supporting and advocating for songwriters, playwrights, and theater makers, while also championing their legacy. She is a graduate of the MA Theater Lab at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Marie joined SJN as a 2018 Story Fellow and lead curator of The Response. She studied international affairs and public policy at Columbia University, where she helped build a massive open online course about global muckraking. Her past experiences include writing about market-driven solutions to poverty at Mercy Corps, researching gender topics in conflict-affected countries at UN Women, and coordinating volunteers at Thin Air Community Radio in Spokane, Washington. Originally from Alaska, Marie loves hiking, road trips, and homemade blueberry pie.

Fara Warner has worked in every storytelling medium from traditional print, books, and digital publishing to virtual reality films throughout her three-decade journalism career. She is a fellow in the 2020 Media Transformation Challenge: A Poynter Institute Executive Fellowship, where she is working on the challenge of transforming news coverage of the climate crisis with a focus on solutions journalism.  In the past decade, she has led teams of developers, designers, writers, and editors at organizations including The Wall Street Journal and Aol Inc. She also has served as an instructor for the 50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism leadership program in 2019 and 2020. She is the author of the best-selling business book, “The Power of the Purse: How Smart Companies Are Adapting to the World’s Most Important Consumers—Women.” She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and was a 2005-2006 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. She lives in West Shokan, N.Y. When she’s not hiking with her Australian Shepherd ‘Eros’, she loves gardening, cycling and yoga.

Holly Wise connects Texas newsrooms with the resources offered by SJN. She is a former journalist, now journalism educator at Texas State University where she teaches upper-level writing and reporting courses. She is the founder of the Texas State Global News Team - an immersive, experiential study abroad program - and the founder of VoiceBox Media, a now-resting news nonprofit that elevated the voices of community changemakers. She is a 2018-2019 Fulbright teaching scholar. She spent a year teaching solutions journalism at Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, India, as well as holding workshops and journalist conversations in Indian cities outside of Bangalore, as well as in Nepal and Kyrgyzstan. She lives in Kyle, Texas, with her husband, toddler daughter and their senior German shepherd. (See all of the above for what she does in her spare time.)