Report for America adds 60 more corps members, at least 16 with rural beats or employers; they will start in July

Sofi Zeman, a graduate of the Missouri
School of Journalism, is going to Uvalde.

The latest class of Report for America corps members includes several with rural beats and employers. Texas got several new reporters; three will be shared by the Longview News-Journal, the Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Marshall News Messenger, and the Uvalde Leader-News, which became known for its coverage of the school shooting there, gets a reporter to cover education, safety and crime. "The People-Sentinel in Barnwell, S.C. ... will open a bureau in a nearby county that no one’s covered in 10 years," Sam Kille of RFA reports. The members will start work in July.

Philanthropically funded, RFA pays "up to half of a corps member’s salary, while its local sustainability team trains newsroom partners to raise the other half from local funders," Kille writes. "Report for America has now matched more than 600 journalists with local newspapers, public radio stations, digital platforms, and television outlets, since its launch in 2017."

The new corps members with rural beats or employers include:

Adrianna Adame, Buffalo's Fire, indigenous democracy in North Dakota

Destini Ambus, Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph and Marshall News Messenger, health challenges in Northeast Texas

Caleb W. Barber, The Mitchell Republic/Forum News Service, rural issues and the South Dakota legislature

Carly Berlin, Vermont Public and VT Digger, housing and infrastructure

Henry Brannan, VPM News/WMRA, Harrisonburg, Va., rural health care

Elijah de Castro, The People-Sentinel, Barnwell, S.C., rural communities in the Low Country

Jordan Green, Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph and Marshall News Messenger, under-served communities

Lucille Lannigan, Albany Herald, rural communities in southwest Georgia

Andrew M. Lusk, KUCB, Unalaska, regional reporting in the eastern Aleutian Islands

Stephen Marcantel, The Acadiana Advocate, rural communities in southern Louisiana

Nikolai Mather, WHQR, Presque Isle, Maine, the rural "safety net"

Carlos Nogueras, Texas Tribune, Permian Basin communities

Jordan Rusche, Tioga Tribune, rural communities in northwest North Dakota

Daniel Schmidt, Ouray County Plaindealer, Ridgway, Colo., local government accountability

Samuel Shaw, Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph and Marshall News Messenger, rural to urban transformation

Isabella Weiss, WVIA Public Media, Pittston, Pa., rural governments

Sofi Zeman, Uvalde Leader-News, education, safety and crime

Current corps members who have rural beats include:

Laura Harbert Allen, 100 Days in Appalachia, religion in Appalachia

Macon Atkinson, Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., presidential primary from a rural perspective

Leo Bertucci, Victoria (Texas) Advocate, the local energy industry

Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile, energy in Wyoming
Riley Board, KDLL, Kenai, effects of state budget policies on rural Alaska communities

Aaron Bonderson, Nebraska Public Media, portraits of Nebraskans, especially rural and of color

Bobby Brier, NJ Spotlight News, mental health issues, especially affecting rural New Jerseyans

Sierra Clark, Traverse City Record-Eagle, indigenous communities in northern Michigan

Monica Cordero Sancho, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, environmental impact of Iowa fertilizer (Mississippi River Basin Project)

Colleen Cronin, ecoRI News, environmental issues in rural areas

Amy Diaz, WFDD, Winston-Salem, education in the Piedmont and mountain North Carolina

Alex Driehaus, Valley News, West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt., photography

Connor Giffin, Louisville Courier Journal, pesticide runoff and climate change (MRB project)

Sofia Gratas, Georgia Public Broadcasting, rural health care in the "stroke belt"

Theo Greenly, KUCB, Unalaska, regional reporting in the eastern Aleutian Islands

Lucy Grindon, North Country Public Radio, low-income families in rural northern New York

James Hanlon, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, rural eastern Washington

Ellen Heffernan, Mountain State Spotlight, rural and community reporting in West Virginia

Rachel Hellman, Seven Days, Burlington, challenges and opportunities in Vermont's small towns

Isabel Hicks, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the future of agriculture

Teresa Homsi, WCMU Public Radio, environmental concerns in rural Michigan

Jamie Jiang, North State Public Radio, Chico, Calif., wildfires and their aftermath

Chloe Johnson, Minneapolis Star Tribune, land use, water and wildlife (MRB Project)

Laura Kebede, Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis, civil rights cold cases in Tennessee
Emily Kenny, Spectrum News, digital coverage of farming and food production in upstate New York
Tash Kimmell, KCAW, Sitka, Alaska, coverage of Sitka and surrounding communities

Cami Koons, Kansas City PBS, rural issues in Missouri

Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, rural communities in southern Arizona

Lacey Latch, The Arizona Republic, rural life in northern Arizona

Michael Livingston, Interlochen Public Radio/Traverse City Record-Eagle, rural northern Michigan

Jayme Lozano, Texas Tribune, community reporting in the Panhandle and South Plains

Grant McLaughlin, The Commercial Dispatch, Columbus, Miss., economic and workforce issues in rural Mississippi

Sarah Michels, Bowling Green Daily News, community reporting in southern Kentucky

Xcaret Nuñez, KOSU, Oklahoma agriculture and rural issues

Santiago Ochoa, Yakima Herald-Republic, rural health care in Yakima County

Theo Peck-Suzuki, WOUB Public Media, Athens, Ohio, childhood poverty in southeast Ohio

Michael Symonds, WMUK, Kalamazoo, Mich., rural meets metro

Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo, WSKG , Vestal, N.Y., rural health care in New York state

Graycen Wheeler, KOSU, rural Oklahoma water issues