Skip to main content

Our Staff

  • Emily Albracht

    Design Director
    Emily Albracht’s staff photo

    Emily Albracht is a multidisciplinary designer. She develops and maintains the visual design systems and brand guidelines for The Texas Tribune. She first joined the organization in 2014 as a graphic designer. Over these years, she has been crucial in elevating the Tribune brand, keeping it fresh and consistent across all platforms. Before joining The Texas Tribune, she slung espresso and was a freelance creative in the local music and festival industry. Read Articles by Emily Albracht

  • Rebekah Allen

    News Editor
    Rebekah Allen’s staff photo

    Rebekah Allen is the news editor for The Texas Tribune. Before joining the Tribune, she worked as a statehouse reporter for The Dallas Morning News. Previously, she was an investigative reporter and statehouse reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and an education reporter at the Pensacola News Journal in Florida. Read Articles by Rebekah Allen

  • Liam Andrew

    Director of Engineering
    Liam Andrew’s staff photo

    Liam Andrew ensures that The Texas Tribune's systems for content management, distribution and analysis align with organizational priorities and user needs. He joined the Tribune in 2015 after completing a master's degree in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, where he worked with a variety of research groups including the Nieman Journalism Lab, Center for Civic Media and HyperStudio. An Iowa native, Liam earned his bachelor's degree in literature and music at Yale University.

  • Virginia Arrigucci

    RevLab Deputy Director
    Virginia Arrigucci’s staff photo

    Virginia Arrigucci is the deputy director of RevLab at The Texas Tribune. RevLab is a training and innovation program that shares what the Tribune has learned in its history with other newsrooms on the path to sustainability. Before the Tribune, Virginia spent nine years at The Associated Press where she worked on digital products and audience. She is originally from El Paso.

  • Carla Astudillo

    Senior Data Visuals Developer
    Carla Astudillo’s staff photo

    Carla Astudillo is a news app and data visuals developer with a focus on elections and political data. Previously, she was a data and interactive visuals journalist at NJ.com and The Star-Ledger in New Jersey, where she helped build a database of police use of force in the state as part of a 16-month investigative project. Carla was also deputy data visuals editor at the International Business Times. She got her master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and her bachelor's degree from the University of Florida. Carla grew up in Florida but is a native of Chile. Read Articles by Carla Astudillo

  • Madeline Badowski

    Events Fellow
    Madeline Badowski’s staff photo

    Madeline Badowski is a fourth-year advertising major at the University of Texas at Austin and a The Texas Tribune events fellow. Madeline has worked as an event coordination and marketing intern for EVENTfull ATX, a marketing and communication intern for Bella by Sara, an associate intern for Wedfully Yours Events + Design, and a social media marketing intern for Madison/Miles Media. She’s also been philanthropy director and communication director for the Texas Belles event planning organization.

  • James Barragán

    Politics Reporter
    James Barragán’s staff photo

    James Barragán is a politics reporter for The Texas Tribune with a focus on accountability reporting. Prior to joining the Tribune, he worked as a statehouse reporter for The Dallas Morning News and had previous stints at the Austin American-Statesman and The Los Angeles Times. In 2021, he was a finalist for the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Reporting for his coverage of Texas politics during COVID-19. A Southern California native, he received his bachelor's degree in history from UCLA. Read Articles by James Barragán

  • Morgan Bennett

    Intern, Accounting and Member Relations Departments
    Morgan Bennett’s staff photo

    Morgan Bennett is an intern in the accounting and member relations departments. They previously worked at their hometown paper, the Colorado County Citizen, and became interested in nonprofit operations in college. They are currently a senior at the University of Texas at Austin.

  • John Mathew Bernal (JMAT)

    Senior Sponsorship Manager
    John Mathew Bernal (JMAT)’s staff photo

    John Mathew Bernal (JMAT) serves as the Senior Sponsorship Manager for the Texas Tribune Revenue Team. Born and raised in Austin and a graduate of Texas State University, JMAT has an extensive background in Sales and Marketing. He joins the Texas Tribune team from DoStuff Media, where he successfully designed holistic campaigns for national brands like Jack Daniel's and Budweiser. Before DoStuff, JMAT was part of the Marketing team at SXSW and Brown Distributing Co. For the last five years, JMAT has run an art nonprofit, Chula League, whose mission is to fuel and sustain the arts in East Austin.

  • Bobby Blanchard

    Director of Audience
    Bobby Blanchard’s staff photo

    Bobby Blanchard runs The Texas Tribune’s social media efforts while strategizing with the newsroom to expand the organization’s reach and engagement across all platforms. He strives to ensure the Tribune is a leading voice every day in the conversation online around Texas policy and politics. A graduate of UT-Austin, Bobby spent his first year out of college at The Dallas Morning News as a reporting fellow, covering Texas politics and breaking news. He got his start in journalism in the poorly lit basement of The Daily Texan, followed by internships at the Houston Chronicle, KUT News and, yes, the Tribune. Born and raised in the Houston area, Bobby is a native Texan. He relies on a steady supply of Tex-Mex and Red Bull to survive. Read Articles by Bobby Blanchard

  • Paige Brann

    Marketing and Communications Fellow
    Paige Brann’s staff photo

    Paige Brann is a rising fourth year at the University of Chicago and the summer Marketing and Communications Fellow. Paige previously worked as a communications intern for the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and is currently a research assistant for an NIH study on rural health. She was also a communications intern for Julián Castro's presidential campaign in Iowa. As a native of the Texas Hill Country, she is excited to be working for a Texan publication. During her free time, she enjoys spending time at the lake and visiting the new wineries of central Texas.

  • Jacki Brinker

    Director & Experiential Producer, Events
    Jacki Brinker’s staff photo

    Jacki Brinker is the director & experiential producer for The Texas Tribune's events. A midwest native, she moved to Austin in 2007 to complete a year of AmeriCorps service with all intentions of moving back to her "home." Texas got her good, though — Jacki joined the Texas Roller Derby in 2008, collected an MSSW from The University of Texas at Austin in 2010, and started claiming Texas as her home state by 2011. She brings ten-plus years of experience in event production, relationship building and nonprofit development, most recently producing events and campaigns for Texas Monthly.

  • Mandi Cai

    Designer/Developer
    Mandi Cai’s staff photo

    Mandi Cai tells stories with code and graphics as part of the data visuals team. Previously, she created dashboards for scientists at BioBright, a Boston-based biotechnology company, and visualized defense data for Defense Footprint, a project contextualizing the United States' international military presence. She graduated from Brown University in 2017 with a concentration in neuroscience, focusing on the intersection of cognitive science and design. Mandi enjoys murals, freestyle embroidery and animated films. Read Articles by Mandi Cai

  • Julia Calagiovanni

    Grants & Awards Manager
    Julia Calagiovanni’s staff photo

    Julia Calagiovanni is the grants and awards manager at The Texas Tribune. Before coming to the Tribune, she worked at a disability rights nonprofit and as an editorial fellow at The Atlantic. She graduated from Yale University in 2015 as a Yale Journalism Scholar.

  • Darla Cameron

    Data Visuals Editor
    Darla Cameron’s staff photo

    Darla Cameron is the data visuals editor at The Texas Tribune in Austin, where she leads a team of developers at the intersection of graphics and news applications. She loves to use data to hold public officials accountable and create more transparency in the murky world of state politics. Her team's visualizations help readers understand Texas better. Previously, she was a graphics editor at The Washington Post. She began her career in Florida at the Tampa Bay Times after completing a fellowship at the Poynter Institute. Darla is a Colorado native with a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Read Articles by Darla Cameron

  • Anna Canizales

    Reporting Fellow
    Anna Canizales’s staff photo

    Anna Canizales is a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a part-time copy editor at the Tribune. Anna was an Austin reporting fellow in Spring 2021 and began copy editing part-time in April. She is currently working as Associate News Editor for The Daily Texan, where she has worked in various roles covering politics, breaking news and the university’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Anna is a government major and a member of the UT chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Read Articles by Anna Canizales

  • Natalie Choate

    Director of Marketing and Communications
    Natalie Choate’s staff photo

    Natalie Choate has a long history in Texas politics, media and communications. In a previous life, she worked two legislative sessions in the Texas Capitol, served as government relations coordinator for Trinity Industries, completed Annie's List Campaign School, and was both a political fundraiser and campaign consultant. Natalie started with The Texas Tribune in January 2011 and has held multiple positions, including assistant director of development, director of media relations and partnerships, and most recently director of marketing and communications. She is a University of Texas alumna and a Leadership Austin Essentials graduate, and she once rode a bike from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska, for the charitable organization Texas 4000 for Cancer.

  • Lexi Churchill

    Research Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Lexi Churchill’s staff photo

    Lexi Churchill was most recently a Scripps Howard research fellow at ProPublica, where she published an investigation exposing how the Trump administration’s quick and quiet crackdown on Idaho’s Medicaid procedures created new red tape that kept children with special needs and the state’s poorest residents from maintaining insurance. She also led reporting efforts for the “Sins of Omission” project and has been involved in ProPublica's coronavirus coverage over the last few weeks. Before joining ProPublica, Lexi interned at several organizations, including CNBC and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lexi will report to Katie Zavadski, the research editor at ProPublica. Read Articles by Lexi Churchill

  • Kiah Collier

    Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Kiah Collier’s staff photo

    Kiah Collier is an investigative reporter for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative. She previously worked at the Tribune as a reporter and associate editor since 2015, covering energy and environment through the lens of state government and politics. She was a reporter on “Hell and High Water,” a Peabody Award–winning collaboration between ProPublica and the Tribune that explored the vulnerability of the Houston area to a large, devastating hurricane. In addition to the Peabody Award, she has been honored with the Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, the National Edward R. Murrow Award for best investigation, and the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award. Read Articles by Kiah Collier

  • Vianna Davila

    Reporter ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Vianna Davila’s staff photo

    Vianna Davila is a reporter with the ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit. Previously, she was the editor of The Seattle Times’ Project Homeless initiative, which examines the causes and effects of homelessness in the Seattle region. She began with the project in 2017 as a reporter, before becoming editor in 2019. Her work with the team was recognized by the Solutions Journalism Network as some of the best solutions reporting of 2018. She previously reported for the San Antonio Express-News, where over 13 years she produced stories on city politics, regional transportation and criminal justice. Her six-part project “The Next Million” explored gentrification, affordable housing, changing demographics and other urban issues in San Antonio, winning the Best of the West 2017 Journalism Contest for online presentation. She graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in English and master’s of journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialty in documentary film. Her master’s thesis film, “In His Blood,” about the lives of overnight television news videographers, was named the best documentary short at the 2009 San Antonio Film Festival. She has previously taught journalism at the University of Washington, Texas State University and Texas A&M University-San Antonio. She is a San Antonio native and a 10th-generation Texan. (Photo: Bettina Hansen, The Seattle Times) Read Articles by Vianna Davila

  • Colleen DeGuzman

    Reporting Fellow
    Colleen DeGuzman’s staff photo

    Colleen DeGuzman is an Austin reporting fellow and recent graduate of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she studied mass communication with a concentration in print journalism. Colleen worked as a reporter and designer at The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, and has had internships at NBC's Weekend Today and Ashoka's Washington bureau. She has also worked as a stringer for the New York Times and is an NPR Next Generation Radio mentee. Read Articles by Colleen DeGuzman

  • Justin Dehn

    Multimedia Producer
    Justin Dehn’s staff photo

    Justin Dehn is a multimedia producer at The Texas Tribune whose focus is video and audio production. He's been shooting and producing news for more than two decades. At the Tribune, Dehn has been behind the camera for Tribune special projects God and Governing, Hurting for Work, Paid to Prosecute and the Emmy award winning documentary 13 Hours to Midnight. He is also the producer and host of the Tribune’s daily news podcast The Brief. Read Articles by Justin Dehn

  • Michael Rey de Leon

    Audiovisual Studio Engineer
    Michael Rey de Leon’s staff photo

    Michael Rey de Leon serves as technical director and audiovisual engineer for Studio 919, as well as providing on-location support for The Texas Tribune’s remote event series. Michael Rey joined the Tribune in 2018 after spending years in the field working for organizations including MTV, SXSW, CBS and the University of Texas at Austin. A sixth-generation Texan with familial roots in the Rio Grande Valley, Michael Rey is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist who has worked with a myriad of recording artists. When he’s not wrapping cables, Michael Rey dedicates his time to his family, cooking and curating an extensive collection of musical instruments. Read Articles by Michael Rey de Leon

  • Erin Douglas

    Environment Reporter
    Erin Douglas’s staff photo

    Erin Douglas is the environment reporter for the Texas Tribune. She was previously a business and economy reporter at the Houston Chronicle where she covered labor, energy and the environment. Before moving to Texas, Erin worked as an intern at Bloomberg in New York and at The Denver Post, her hometown newspaper. Erin studied journalism and economics at Colorado State University. Based in Houston, Erin is always planning her next road trip across Texas. Read Articles by Erin Douglas

  • Farah Eltohamy

    D.C. Reporting Fellow
    Farah Eltohamy’s staff photo

    Farah Eltohamy is a graduate student at Arizona State University and the summer Washington reporting fellow for the Texas Tribune. Previously, Farah was the digital news intern for NPR and the state politics intern for the Arizona Republic. Her reporting has also appeared in outlets such as National Geographic and The Los Angeles Times. Outside of news, Farah can be found painting, thrifting and spending time with her grumpy old cat, Tito. Read Articles by Farah Eltohamy

  • Chris Essig

    Deputy Editor for Data Visuals
    Chris Essig’s staff photo

    Chris Essig is the deputy data visuals editor at the Texas Tribune. He helps lead a team of developers who build charts, maintain public databases and analyze data for reporters to help them hold elected officials accountable. Chris has been a newsroom developer for 10 years and has worked in several local newsrooms. As a native of the Midwest, Chris received his journalism degree from Eastern Illinois University and spent six years in Iowa working at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids and at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in Waterloo. Read Articles by Chris Essig

  • Mitchell Ferman

    Energy and Economy Reporter
    Mitchell Ferman’s staff photo

    Mitchell Ferman is a reporter for The Texas Tribune covering energy and the economy from a base in Houston. Before joining the Tribune he was a reporter for The Monitor in McAllen, where he covered cross-border trade, politics and the city of McAllen. He also regularly freelanced from the Rio Grande Valley and beyond for The New York Times, Texas Monthly and Reuters, writing about topics including the family separation crisis and unexpected consequences of the border wall. He graduated from the University of Missouri. Read Articles by Mitchell Ferman

  • Irma Fernandez

    Development Officer
    Irma Fernandez’s staff photo

    Irma Fernandez is a development officer at The Texas Tribune. She is a graduate of St. Edward’s University and received a Fulbright grant to Brazil post-grad. Irma worked in politics for several cycles, spending time in Texas, Florida, and Nevada. She is an overly passionate sports fan, thinks Friday Night Lights is the greatest show of all time, and does it all for her dog named Ramsey.

  • Brandon Formby

    Night News Editor
    Brandon Formby’s staff photo

    Brandon Formby studied journalism at Texas Tech University. After graduation, he worked at The Dallas Morning News, where he covered local politics, suburban government and regional transportation. He joined The Texas Tribune (but remained in Dallas) as its first urban affairs reporter in 2016. He became the Trib’s night news editor (and moved to Austin) in 2019. He doesn't understand Texas cities' taco wars or the inclination to stay loyal to one restaurant; he believes it's OK to love all tacos. Read Articles by Brandon Formby

  • Amari Foster

    Events Fellow
    Amari Foster’s staff photo

    Amari Foster is a rising junior at the University of Missouri - Columbia and is a summer events fellow, where she has goals of covering attendee engagement, product website development and targeted promotions. She has previously worked at Missouri Business Alert, where she served as Marketing Intern. On-campus, she is a Residential Advisor-Peer Learning Assistant and is involved in the National Association of Black Journalists Alé student chapter, Alumni Association Student Board, American Advertising Federation, and Marching Mizzou.

  • Uriel J. García

    Immigration Reporter
    Uriel J. García’s staff photo

    Uriel J. García is an immigration reporter based in El Paso. Before joining the Tribune, he worked at the Arizona Republic where he covered police violence and immigration enforcement. He started his journalism career at the Santa Fe New Mexican where he focused on covering the city's immigrant community and criminal justice issues. Originally from Mexico, he grew up in Phoenix and graduated from Arizona State University. Read Articles by Uriel J. García

  • Jon Garza

    Analytics and Data Manager
    Jon Garza’s staff photo

    Jon Garza is a data analyst at The Texas Tribune. He works across the editorial, product, and revenue teams to generate insights that helps guide the Tribune toward achieving its strategic goals. Before joining the Tribune in early 2020, he worked as a marketing analyst at a digital marketing agency in Austin. A native of Laredo, he has a bachelor's degree in advertising from the University of Texas.

  • Eddie Gaspar

    Associate Photo Editor
    Eddie Gaspar’s staff photo

    Eddie Gaspar is an associate photo editor at The Texas Tribune, a job he took on after working as the Tribune’s photo fellow for two semesters. Eddie is a senior at the University of Texas. He has worked as a photo editor at The Daily Texan, a multimedia intern at KUT and a contributor at Do512. He has also worked for Texas Student Television’s “Austin Underground” and UT’s Cactus Yearbook. Eddie is fluent in Spanish. Read Articles by Eddie Gaspar

  • Andrew Gibson

    Senior Front-End Engineer
    Andrew Gibson’s staff photo

    Andrew Gibson joined The Texas Tribune in 2016. Before that, he worked for more than two years at the Orlando Sentinel, building data visualizations, news apps and interactive projects. He also contributed to the Sentinel's coverage of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Andrew is originally from Denver (go Broncos) and graduated from the University of Missouri in 2014. At the Tribune, he helps make the website move fast and look pretty.

  • Emily Goldstein

    Copy Chief
    Emily Goldstein’s staff photo

    Emily Goldstein is the copy chief at The Texas Tribune. Emily previously worked at The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Observer. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri and her master's degree from the University of North Texas. Read Articles by Emily Goldstein

  • Malú González

    Assistant Director of Events
    Malú González’s staff photo

    Malú González is the assistant director of events for the Texas Tribune, where she oversees the production and execution strategy of all Tribune events, including the Texas Tribune Festival. Previously, she planned discussions and themed conversations as the first Events Director for the Daily Texan. She has also worked as a business news reporter for the McCombs Center for Global Business and co-founded Save the Drop, an organization that promotes water conservation. A native from Tampico, Mexico, Malú graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020 and is fluent in Spanish.

  • Courtney Griffin

    Marketing and Communications Manager
    Courtney Griffin’s staff photo

    Courtney Griffin was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Her family means everything to her, and locally-raised, ethically-sourced products are her jam. Having spent the last ten years building a career in the juxtaposition of digital marketing and community outreach, Courtney considers herself a social entrepreneur dedicated to leaving a positive and sustainable impact on the world – and more specifically, Texas. As the Marketing and Communications Manager for the Tribune, Courtney will bring her unique perspective and eclectic style to the Texas News realm with the intent to support organizational goals and grow Trib viewership to new levels.

  • Catherine Grooms

    Advertising Operations Manager
    Catherine Grooms’s staff photo

    Catherine Grooms manages advertising operations at The Texas Tribune. Before joining the Tribune in the fall of 2017, she worked as a clothing designer in New York, where she also attended Parsons School of Design. As a native Austinite, she is glad to be back in her hometown.

  • Miguel Gutierrez Jr.

    Photographer/Photo Editor
    Miguel Gutierrez Jr.’s staff photo

    Miguel Gutierrez Jr. is The Texas Tribune's photographer and photo editor. He oversees our photography operation, thinking strategically about how to tell visually rich stories about Texas government and politics with the help of our network of talented freelance photographers across the state. Gutierrez, an Illinois native who is fluent in Spanish, came to us from New York, where he was working as a multimedia producer for the state attorney general’s office. But he knows Texas well. He received two master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin — in journalism and Latin American studies — and worked as a multimedia producer at KUT. Gutierrez has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American and Latino studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also worked in film production in Los Angeles. Read Articles by Miguel Gutierrez Jr.

  • Dave Harmon

    Investigative Editor
    Dave Harmon’s staff photo

    Dave Harmon joined the Tribune in January 2017 as the editor for the investigative and projects team. After graduating from the University of Texas with a journalism degree, he started his reporting career in the Rio Grande Valley at The (McAllen) Monitor, covering health care and the environment. After a short stint at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he returned to Austin and spent 18 years at the Austin American-Statesman as a reporter, assistant metro editor and finally a member of the investigative team. Read Articles by Dave Harmon

  • Raven Harper

    Engagement Fellow
    Raven Harper’s staff photo

    Raven Harper is a senior at Hampton University and a summer engagement fellow at the Tribune. She has worked as The Hampton Script’s campus editor, overseeing all university news, events, and campus life at Hampton. She also currently serves as the president of Hampton’s online women’s magazine. Before joining the Tribune, she worked at Her Campus Media as a social media intern. Raven is a print journalism major and a 2021 Facebook HBCU News Fellow. Read Articles by Raven Harper

  • Karen Brooks Harper

    Health and Human Services Reporter
    Karen Brooks Harper’s staff photo

    Karen Brooks Harper reports on health and human services. An alumna of the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School, Karen arrived in Texas in 1995 to join the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, spent several years in Laredo and Mexico covering immigration and the drug war for Knight-Ridder newspapers, and has covered Texas politics for more than two decades for news organizations including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News and Reuters. Read Articles by Karen Brooks Harper

  • Ashley Hebler

    Deputy Director of Engineering
    Ashley Hebler’s staff photo

    Ashley Hebler is the deputy director of engineering at The Texas Tribune and enjoys implementing engaging and meaningful experiences for users on the web. She received a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics at Texas A&M University and a master's degree in mass communication with a focus on digital media from Texas State University. Ashley is a native Texan from Galveston and enjoys navigating the beautiful rivers of the Texas Hill Country.

  • April Hinkle

    Chief Revenue Officer
    April Hinkle’s staff photo

    April Hinkle is The Texas Tribune's chief revenue officer. She holds an advertising degree from the University of Texas and is responsible for the Tribune’s corporate revenue programs, speakers’ bureau and licensing of content. Previously April spent over 20 years at Texas Monthly, as retail advertising director, advertising and marketing director, associate publisher and publisher.

  • John Jordan

    Deputy Photo Editor/Operations Manager
    John Jordan’s staff photo

    John Jordan does a little bit of everything at The Texas Tribune. From working with our great photographers to editing our directory of elected officials to making fresh guac y queso every Friday, John manages the day-to-day operations at the Tribune and makes sure we have good coffee to drink. Before coming to work at the Tribune, John spent several decades as a touring and recording musician. In 2005, he left the road (well, sort of) to join a statewide political campaign. After that, John joined the Austin bureau of The Dallas Morning News, where he worked for four years before joining the staff at The Texas Tribune. Read Articles by John Jordan

  • Jason Kao

    Data Visuals Fellow
    Jason Kao’s staff photo

    Jason Kao is the summer data visuals fellow and a rising senior at Columbia University. Jason has worked as a graphics intern at The New York Times, where he covered U.S. immigration, C.E.O. pay, and protests in Puerto Rico and Hong Kong. He was also a news intern at Bloomberg News, where he reported on the intersection of race, labor and climate. Jason is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association.

  • Lomi Kriel

    Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Lomi Kriel’s staff photo

    Lomi Kriel is a reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit. Previously she was a reporter at the Houston Chronicle covering immigration, often focused on the Texas border. Six months before the Trump administration announced its family separation policy, Kriel uncovered how the government was secretly using the prosecution of illegal entry to detain parents until deportation and send children to federal shelters. Her stories resulted in the release of one mother and helped spur a pivotal American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit largely ending the practice. She received the 2019 George Polk Award for national reporting, in part for her continued work on family separations. Kriel, who was born and raised in South Africa, immigrated to the United States in 1998. She has also worked as a Central American correspondent for Thomson Reuters and a criminal justice reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University and speaks Afrikaans and Spanish. Read Articles by Lomi Kriel

  • Evan Lambert

    Chief Financial Officer
    Evan Lambert’s staff photo

    Evan Lambert joined the Tribune in October 2019 as chief financial officer. He brings a diverse background and experience in nonprofit financial management, international development, microfinance and public accounting. His previous experience includes working as the CFO of United Way for Greater Austin and as CFO of Pro Mujer International, a New York-based international development org serving more than 250,000 women in Latin America. A native of New York, Evan has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin. He’s a father of two, a Peace Corps alum, an avid cyclist and outdoorsman, and fluent in Spanish.

  • Ren Larson

    Data Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Ren Larson’s staff photo

    Ren Larson is a data journalist who comes to the Tribune from The Arizona Republic, where she reported on elections, immigration, environmental contamination and wildfires. Her 2019 project "Ahead of the Fire," which analyzed nearly 5,000 Western communities for wildfire hazard and human vulnerabilities, won a 2019 EPPY award for innovation, the MIT Knight Science Journalism's Victor K. McElheny award and was a finalist for the Philip Meyer Award. She holds a masters of public policy and an M.A. in international and area studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Before entering journalism in 2015, she worked as a city planner, a case manager and a data analyst. Read Articles by Ren Larson

  • Elvia Limón

    Engagement Producer
    Elvia Limón’s staff photo

    Elvia Limón is The Texas Tribune's engagement producer. She forges deeper connections with our readers through our daily newsletter, The Brief; our Facebook community, This Is Your Texas; and our crowd-powered explainer series, Texplainer. Before joining the Tribune, she was an engagement reporter and a community reporter for The Dallas Morning News. Limón is a native Dallasite, and she has a master's degree in journalism from the University of North Texas' Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. Read Articles by Elvia Limón

  • Abby Livingston

    Washington Bureau Chief
    Abby Livingston’s staff photo

    Abby Livingston joined The Texas Tribune in 2014 as the publication's first Washington bureau chief. In this role, she covers members in the Texas congressional delegation and campaigns back in the home state. A seventh-generation Texan, Abby grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to the Tribune, Abby worked for NBC, CNN, National Journal and Roll Call. At the Tribune, she won the 2017 National Press Club Award for Washington regional reporting and the Society of Professional Journalists' 2018 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Washington correspondence. Abby is a contributing writer to the Almanac of American Politics and frequently appears on MSNBC, CNN and Sirius XM radio. She also had a role on an episode of "The Bold and The Beautiful." In keeping with the Trib’s great history of hiring softball stars, Abby is a three-time MVP (the most in game history) for The Bad News Babes, the women’s press softball team that takes on female members of Congress in the annual Congressional Women’s Softball breast cancer charity game. Read Articles by Abby Livingston

  • Regina Mack

    Off-Platform Editor
    Regina Mack’s staff photo

    Regina Mack is the off-platform editor at The Texas Tribune, where she runs the daily social operation and works to expand the reach of the Tribune's journalism. An Indianapolis native, she moved to Austin to work as an engagement fellow at the Tribune after graduating from Indiana University, and she later served as the social media editor at Texas Monthly. Read Articles by Regina Mack

  • Jolie McCullough

    Criminal Justice Reporter
    Jolie McCullough’s staff photo

    Jolie McCullough reports on criminal justice issues and policy for The Texas Tribune, ranging from coverage on policing and courts to prisons and the death penalty. She came to the Tribune in early 2015 from the Albuquerque Journal, and has previously worked at the Arizona Republic. She is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Read Articles by Jolie McCullough

  • Kate McGee

    Higher Education Reporter
    Kate McGee’s staff photo

    Kate McGee covers higher education for The Texas Tribune. She joins after nearly a decade as a reporter at public radio stations across the country. She most recently covered higher ed at WBEZ in Chicago, but started on the education beat in 2013 at KUT in Austin. She has also worked at NPR affiliates in Washington D.C., New York City and Reno, Nevada. Kate was born in New York City and primarily raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Fordham University. Her work has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Here and Now, and The Takeaway. Read Articles by Kate McGee

  • Marquis Mills-Cooper

    Revenue Lab Project Manager
    Marquis Mills-Cooper’s staff photo

    Marquis Mills-Cooper joined the Texas Tribune in March of 2021 and is the Revenue Lab project manager. Prior to becoming a project management professional in 2020, Marquis enjoyed a 21-year career in the United States Army as an All Source Intelligence Warrant Officer (Chief Warrant Officer 2). He served in multiple countries and supported combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo with timely and accurate intelligence. Marquis originally hails from Queens, New York, is a father of one daughter and likes writing and going to the gym. He’s also a collector of edged weapons and does volunteer work in his spare time. He’s a student at Austin Community College where he majors in Government. Marquis is happy to be out of uniform and to be here with the Tribune, but will probably still answer to “Hey Chief” if you want to have some fun with him.

  • Ayan Mittra

    Editor
    Ayan Mittra’s staff photo

    Ayan Mittra joined the Tribune after working more than 10 years at The Dallas Morning News. He spent his first seven years there as a copy editor. In 2008, he moved to the political desk, supervising the daily presentations and working with reporters in the field. He then worked as a night city editor, supervising the coverage of late-breaking news. He was also on the editing team for the 2009 and 2011 legislative sessions. A native of Beaumont, Ayan graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Read Articles by Ayan Mittra

  • Reese Oxner

    Breaking News Reporter
    Reese Oxner’s staff photo

    Reese Oxner is the breaking news reporter for The Texas Tribune. He previously interned on NPR’s news desk, was a summer reporting fellow at the Tribune and worked part-time covering Arlington for the Dallas Morning News. He was the editor in chief of The Shorthorn, the University of Texas at Arlington’s student-run newspaper, where he earned the 2019 editor of the year award from the Texas Collegiate Press Association. He studied web design in college and really, really likes Korean BBQ. Read Articles by Reese Oxner

  • Sophie Park

    Photography Fellow
    Sophie Park’s staff photo

    Sophie Park is the summer photography fellow. In 2020, she graduated with a B.A. in international relations from Boston University. In her time at BU, she worked as a staff photographer for BU Today, associate photo editor for the Daily Free Press, and assisted teaching visual journalism courses. Sophie also worked as a photo intern for the Harvard Gazette and photography teaching assistant at Harvard Extension School. As a photographer and scholar, her perspectives are shaped by her semi-nomadic upbringing in Missouri, New Jersey, and Cambodia. While behind the camera, her goal is simple: to capture otherwise fleeting moments, connect people, and debunk stereotypes through visual mediums. She is especially interested in telling stories around race and identity through portraiture. Read Articles by Sophie Park

  • David Pasztor

    Story Editor
    David Pasztor’s staff photo

    David Pasztor has more than 30 years of experience as a reporter and editor, working at various publications in Texas, Arizona and California.

  • Heidi Perez-Moreno

    Reporting Fellow
    Heidi Perez-Moreno’s staff photo

    Heidi Perez-Moreno is a rising senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a summer Austin reporting fellow. She has worked as a production assistant for The California Report at the NPR and PBS affiliate KQED. She’s also a reporter for The Daily Tar Heel, where she served as a diversity, equity and inclusion officer and assistant audience engagement editor this year. Before transferring to UNC last August, Perez-Moreno was editor-in-chief and social media director for The Reporter at Miami Dade College. Pérez-Moreno is also a member of UNC’s chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Read Articles by Heidi Perez-Moreno

  • Cassandra Pollock

    Politics Reporter
    Cassandra Pollock’s staff photo

    Cassandra Pollock is The Texas Tribune’s state politics reporter. She joined the Tribune full-time in June 2017 after a fellowship during the 85th Texas Legislature. Pollock spent her first two years at the Trib as an engagement reporter, which meant her name likely landed in your inbox every weekday morning with “The Brief,” a newsletter on all things Texas politics and public policy. Pollock is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism. Read Articles by Cassandra Pollock

  • Terry Quinn

    Chief Development Officer
    Terry Quinn’s staff photo

    Terry Quinn is a sixth-generation Texan and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked as a volunteer and professional for over 23 years to raise funds for many nonprofit organizations in Austin and around Texas, most recently The Nature Conservancy of Texas and The Contemporary Austin. For the Tribune, Terry leads the work with the foundations and the individuals whose philanthropic support make the mission of the Tribune possible.

  • Ross Ramsey

    Executive Editor
    Ross Ramsey’s staff photo

    Ross Ramsey is executive editor and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. He writes regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas. Read Articles by Ross Ramsey

  • Gayle Reaves

    Part-time Editor
    Gayle Reaves’s staff photo

    Gayle Reaves is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked everywhere from tiny weeklies to major daily papers, as state capitol bureau chief, Washington correspondent, and, for much of her career, investigative and enterprise reporter. She spent 14 years as editor of the investigative-oriented Fort Worth Weekly. In 13 years at The Dallas Morning News, she was on reporting teams that won a Pulitzer in international reporting, were finalists for a second Pulitzer, and won a George Polk Award for courageous regional reporting. Born in Hallettsville, Texas, she lives in Fort Worth and is a past president of the Journalism and Women Symposium. She also writes poetry, including a chapbook, "Spectral Analysis." Read Articles by Gayle Reaves

  • Alana Rocha

    Multimedia Reporter
    Alana Rocha’s staff photo

    Alana Rocha joined The Texas Tribune staff as the multimedia reporter after working eight years in television and radio news. She's covered politics for stations in Florida, Kansas and most recently Austin as YNN's lead political reporter. Her work at the cable news outlet took her around the country reporting from the presidential campaign trail. A native of Tampa, Florida, Alana received bachelor's degrees in journalism and Spanish from the University of Florida. Read Articles by Alana Rocha

  • Sumaya Saati

    Development Officer
    Sumaya Saati’s staff photo

    Sumaya Saati is a Development Officer at The Texas Tribune. She earned her undergraduate degree from UT Austin and graduate degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Sumaya has legislative and policy experience including working at the Texas State Senate during the 80th legislative session. She brings nearly 10 years experience in fundraising for organizations including Thinkery and UT Austin's College of Natural Sciences, and earned her Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential in 2019. She is a native Austinite, a third-generation Texan, and a long-time fan of the Tribune.

  • Gustavo San Miguel

    Director of Human Resources
    Gustavo San Miguel’s staff photo

    Gustavo San Miguel is the Director of Human Resources for the Texas Tribune. He joined the Tribune in May 2021. A Houston native, Gustavo obtained his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and pursued his graduate degree from St. Edward’s University. Gustavo comes to the Tribune from UT Austin where he was the HR Director for the Moody College of Communication and the HR Manager for the College of Fine Arts. In previous HR positions, Gustavo has worked in locations as diverse as in Afghanistan with the LOGCAP project and the Amundsen-Scott Research Station at the South Pole with the United States Antarctic Project.

  • Lauren Santucci

    Multimedia Fellow
    Lauren Santucci’s staff photo

    Lauren Santucci is a multimedia fellow at the Texas Tribune. Santucci is a visual journalist with the goal of humanizing social issues through personal stories. She received her masters in photojournalism and documentary filmmaking from Ohio University this year and holds an undergraduate degree in international relations and art history from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Santucci's work has been published by FRONTLINE PBS, NPR, The Guardian, and more. Her photography has also exhibited at Photoville in Brooklyn and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Read Articles by Lauren Santucci

  • Jeremy Schwartz

    Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Jeremy Schwartz’s staff photo

    Jeremy Schwartz has been an investigative reporter in Texas for nearly a decade, covering issues including voting rights and border security for the Austin American-Statesman and USA Today Network. His work has resulted in the overhaul of Texas' inspection process for farmworker housing, sparked Congressional investigations of a failed Department of Veterans Affairs research program and uncovered misleading border arrest and drug seizure statistics maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Schwartz won the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Latino Issues award for his 2017 investigation into the political underrepresentation of Latinos in Texas cities and counties, and the Headliners Foundation of Texas Reporter of the Year award, among other honors. He previously served as Cox Newspapers' Latin America correspondent in Mexico City from 2005 to 2009, and before that, he covered the U.S. Border Patrol and immigration at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Read Articles by Jeremy Schwartz

  • Izz Scott LaMagdeleine

    Engagement Fellow
    Izz Scott LaMagdeleine’s staff photo

    Izz Scott LaMagdeleine is a junior at the University of South Carolina and an engagement fellow at the Tribune this summer. Izz previously worked as an inaugural Election SOS voter guide/reporting fellow, covering the North Carolina state house during the 2020 election. They have also freelanced reports for Undark Magazine and The Objective while fact-checking for publications like D Magazine, Vox and Runner's World. During their off hours, they like to watch WNBA games and Studio Ghibli films with their cat, Big Boy. Read Articles by Izz Scott LaMagdeleine

  • Becca Silvas

    Copywriter
    Becca Silvas’s staff photo

    Becca Silvas is a copywriter at the Texas Tribune on the marketing and communications team. Previously, Becca has served as senior communications associate at the World Justice Project in Seattle, WA, and as marketing and communications coordinator at KERA, Dallas' NPR and PBS member station. She earned her master's in mass communication with a concentration in global media from Texas State University in 2016, and a B.A.I.S. in International Studies and B.A. in Spanish in 2014, also from Texas State University. With a longtime passion for public service and writing, Becca has also been a public affairs intern at the U.S. Embassy in London, an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Central Texas Food Bank, and a digital marketing intern at Austin-based firm PR By the Book.

  • Evan Smith

    CEO
    Evan Smith’s staff photo

    Evan Smith is the CEO and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, a pioneering nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news organization whose deep coverage of Texas politics and public policy can be found at its website, texastribune.org, and in newspapers and on TV and radio stations across the state. Since its launch in 2009, the Tribune has won international acclaim and numerous honors, including a Peabody Award, 23 national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and three general excellence awards from the Online News Association. Evan is also the host of “Overheard with Evan Smith,” a weekly half-hour interview program that airs on PBS stations around the country. A native of New York, he's a graduate of Hamilton College and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Read Articles by Evan Smith

  • Patrick Svitek

    Political Reporter
    Patrick Svitek’s staff photo

    Patrick Svitek is the primary political correspondent for The Texas Tribune. Patrick logged countless miles on the 2016 campaign trail, covering the many Texas angles of the momentous presidential race. He previously worked for the Houston Chronicle's Austin bureau. He graduated in 2014 from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He is originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Read Articles by Patrick Svitek

  • Zahira Torres

    Senior Editor for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative
    Zahira Torres’s staff photo

    Zahira Torres is the editor for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit, a first-of-its-kind collaboration to publish investigative reporting for and about Texas. Prior to joining the unit, Torres was a senior editor with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network where she worked with reporters in local and regional newsrooms on investigative projects. A native of El Paso, Texas, Torres was the first Latina and second woman to serve as the newspaper’s editor in its more than 100-year history. While at the El Paso Times, Torres also served as enterprise editor for the USA Today Network’s Texas/New Mexico newspapers. She was part of a team that developed and edited “The Wall: Untold Stories, Unintended Consequences,” which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Torres began her career at the Times as a news clerk while attending the University of Texas at El Paso. She later became the Austin bureau chief for the newspaper. During that time, she worked to uncover a cheating scheme at the El Paso Independent School District — the city’s largest — that denied many El Paso children the right to a proper education. She later became an education reporter for the Denver Post and Los Angeles Times before returning to her Texas roots. Read Articles by Zahira Torres

  • Perla Trevizo

    Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
    Perla Trevizo’s staff photo

    Perla Trevizo is a Mexican-American reporter born in Ciudad Juárez and raised across the border in El Paso, Texas, where she began her journalism career. Trevizo spent more than 10 years covering immigration and border issues in Tennessee and Arizona before joining the Houston Chronicle as an environmental reporter. She has written from nearly a dozen countries, from African refugee camps to remote Guatemalan villages, with the goal of broadening readers’ understanding of the global issues that impact the local communities where she has worked. Her work has earned her national and state awards including the Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism, French-American Foundation Immigration Journalism Award, and a national Edward R. Murrow for a story done in collaboration with Arizona Public Media. She was also honored as the 2019 Arizona Journalist of the Year by the Arizona Newspaper Association. Read Articles by Perla Trevizo

  • Matthew Turk

    Engineering Fellow
    Matthew Turk’s staff photo

    Matthew Turk is a rising sophomore at Stanford University and the summer 2021 engineering fellow. He expects to major in computer science and is a desk editor at The Stanford Daily, where he also leads the mobile app development team. Matthew has participated in several technical and financial internship programs. Most recently before the Tribune, he worked with the frontend development team at Blocklight Analytics in his hometown of Chicago from January to May 2021. His debut novel, An Invincible Summer, went on sale in stores in February. Ask him about astrophysics, football and the automotive industry.

  • Alexa Ura

    Demographics Reporter/Associate Editor
    Alexa Ura’s staff photo

    Alexa Ura is an associate editor and reporter at The Texas Tribune. As the Tribune’s demographics reporter, she covers the intersection between politics and race with an emphasis on the state’s surging Hispanic population. She also covers voting rights issues for the Tribune, where she started as a reporting fellow in 2013. She’s a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Read Articles by Alexa Ura

  • Jacob Villanueva

    Chief Creative Officer
    Jacob Villanueva’s staff photo

    Jacob Villanueva manages a team of designers to develop and maintain The Texas Tribune’s visual and brand strategy across products, platforms and marketing channels. He integrates his expertise of more than 20 years in design, interactive, video, photography and digital media production. Read Articles by Jacob Villanueva

  • Allyson Waller

    Reporter
    Allyson Waller’s staff photo

    Allyson Waller is a general assignment reporter at The Texas Tribune. Previously, she was part of the 2020-2021 New York Times Fellowship class where she worked as a general assignment reporter for the publication’s breaking news desk. Allyson is a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in journalism. While at UT Austin, she interned at the Miami Herald as a local government reporter and The Texas Tribune as an investigative fellow. When not closely following politics and state policy, Allyson enjoys listening to podcasts, watching documentaries and stocking up on fiction books. Read Articles by Allyson Waller

  • Matthew Watkins

    Managing Editor of News and Politics
    Matthew Watkins’s staff photo

    Matthew Watkins is the managing editor of news and politics for The Texas Tribune. Before becoming an editor, he worked as a reporter at the Tribune, The Dallas Morning News and The Eagle in Bryan-College Station. He earned his bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University. Read Articles by Matthew Watkins

  • Todd Wiseman

    Managing Editor, Video
    Todd Wiseman’s staff photo

    Todd Wiseman previously worked at the Austin School of Film and Synthetic Pictures and interned for director Richard Linklater. At The Texas Tribune, Todd helped develop the Stump Interrupted series, which won a national Edward R. Murrow award. He also co-produced the award-winning documentary "Beyond The Wall." A Fort Worth native, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a dual degree in film and English. Read Articles by Todd Wiseman

  • Isabella Zou

    Reporting Fellow
    Isabella Zou’s staff photo

    Isabella Zou is a summer reporting fellow at The Texas Tribune. She is a rising junior at Yale University, where she studies Ethnicity, Race and Migration and is a Yale Journalism Scholar. Isabella has worked as an inequity and disparity reporting intern for the CT Mirror and an intern for the Austin American-Statesman’s Westlake Picayune. She serves as editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News Magazine, a monthly publication for narrative journalism, fiction, poetry and the arts. An Austin native, she enjoys dancing, singing and eating all tacos. Isabella is fluent in Mandarin. Read Articles by Isabella Zou