Announcing the 2022 Climate Science, Gender Equality, and Justice Reporting Fellows

The Pulitzer Center is excited to announce a new cohort of Reporting Fellows in the categories of climate science, gender equality, and justice. These nine fellows will be reporting on a range of issues, both globally and nationally.

Funding for these fellowships will come from the Art for Justice Fund, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education, the PIMCO Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.

Climate science

Megan Cattel is a 2020 alumna of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. This past year, she was an intern with St. Louis Public Radio and SupChina, covering a range of issues. Her reporting will focus on efforts in Florida to save manatees with the support of seagrass restoration projects and stricter environmental legislation.

Kristen Chin’s documentary reporting will focus on the impact of climate change on the snow removal industry in the Northeast, as winters become wetter and more unpredictable. Chin has a master’s in journalism from Boston University and a bachelor's in environmental policy from Washington University in St. Louis. She has experience working as a production assistant and also as a freelance writer in the Boston area.

Christian Elliott is a student at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. He was a production assistant at WVIK Quad Cities NPR and now writes for anthro{dendum}. His reporting will focus on the creation of COLDEX, the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, and the significant funding given to diversify and improve efforts to study ancient air bubbles in Arctic ice.

Brett Marsh will travel to Colombia to investigate the multitude of challenges from future economic to environmental viability facing the country’s coffee industry. He is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and is a freelance multimedia and visual journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times and Oakland North.

Gender equality

Laura Goodfield will be reporting on gender bias in urban design, pulling on lessons from Berlin that could be modeled in the U.S. She is a student at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, with a focus on women’s gender and sexuality studies. Goodfield has worked as a research intern for the Department of Health and Human Services, and as a civic engagement specialist for the city of Boston.

Cole McCann-Phillips is a student at the University of Pennsylvania, studying history and modern Middle East studies. He speaks French and Arabic. His project will focus on stories and experiences of women in Lebanon working as domestic workers and the many challenges they face.

Meera Santhanam is a 2021 graduate of the University of Chicago and a 2020 Pulitzer Center Justice Reporting Fellow. She currently works as a paralegal at the U.S. Department of Justice in the civil rights division, and she was a recipient of the Human Rights Fellowship at the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights. Santhanam will report on feminist filmmakers revolutionizing Levantine cinema.

Justice 

Hana Ahmed will focus her reporting on women in the criminal justice system, highlighting the case of Erika Ray and how the Law of Accountability unjustly puts women in prison. Ahmed is studying at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism before attending medical school. She has extensive experience in medical research and is interested in photography and film.

Anya Slepyan is a student at Swarthmore College, where she is studying history, and is a 2020 recipient of a Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellowship. She has worked with the Sunrise Movement, a youth-driven climate change organization, and reported extensively for a variety of publications on issues facing rural communities, from the pandemic to broadband access. Her reporting will focus on prison guard training programs in rural American schools, and how they have created a second school-to-prison pipeline.