Liz Willen
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Liz Willen, a longtime education journalist, has led the award-winning Hechinger Report staff as editor in chief since 2011. A sought-after moderator of education conferences and events, Willen also writes the “From the Editor’s Desk” column and manages funder relations. Willen previously worked at an array of newspapers as well as at Bloomberg News, where she received numerous awards for writing and reporting. At The Hechinger Report, she’s won awards for commentary and exemplary leadership. Willen got her start in newspapers as feature editor of “The Rag,” in Northport, New York, and spent years trying to figure out New York City’s public school system, both as a reporter and a parent. She’s a graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a board member for the Spencer Education Fellowships at Columbia. More by Liz Willen
Nirvi Shah
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Nirvi Shah is responsible for overseeing all editorial aspects of The Hechinger Report’s journalism. She joined Hechinger after serving as education enterprise editor for USA TODAY. Before that, she was a Spencer Fellow in education reporting at Columbia University and spent nearly a decade with POLITICO in the U.S. and Europe. She was the founding editor of the POLITICO Pro Education policy team. She also worked for Education Week, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post and The Lakeland Ledger. Her work has exposed flaws in federal data collection about the use of suspension and expulsion and drawn attention to the uneven use of these disciplinary practices. Nirvi has won a number of education reporting awards as well as a Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade award in deadline reporting with colleagues at the Post. Her work has been published in Business Insider, Education Next, The Guardian, The Nation and USA TODAY, among other publications. More by Nirvi Shah
Jill Barshay
SENIOR REPORTER
Jill Barshay writes the weekly “Proof Points” column about education research and data, covering a range of topics from early childhood to higher education. She taught algebra to ninth-graders for the 2013-14 school year. Previously, Barshay was the New York bureau chief for Marketplace, a national business show on public radio stations. She has also written for Congressional Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Financial Times, and appeared on CNN and ABC News. She was a 2016-17 Spencer Fellow in Education Reporting. In 2019 she received the American Educational Research Association’s award for excellence in media reporting on education research. A graduate of Brown University, Barshay holds master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. More by Jill Barshay
Matt Bruderle
SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER
Matt Bruderle manages travel, human resources and corporate sponsorships. Before coming to Hechinger in 2007, he worked in student affairs at Purchase College, SUNY. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Colorado State University.
Sarah Butrymowicz
SENIOR EDITOR FOR INVESTIGATIONS
Sarah Butrymowicz oversees and contributes to The Hechinger Report’s investigative and data work covering all levels of education, from early childhood to K-12 to higher education. She has worked at Hechinger since 2010 and, in that time, her work has appeared in dozens of news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA TODAY. Butrymowicz has won several journalism awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting and two Front Page awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York. She received a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. More by Sarah Butrymowicz
Sarah Carr
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Email: sec2002@columbia.edu
Sarah Carr has reported and edited for Hechinger since 2011. Currently, she covers early childhood education and manages the eight-newsroom Education Reporting Collaborative. She has written for The Washington Post, The Atlantic and Slate, winning several national awards. Carr served as the Ottaway Visiting Professor of Journalism at SUNY New Paltz, and for five years she led Columbia Journalism School’s Teacher Project fellowship, spearheading collaborations with more than 30 editorial partners. Past fellowship grants include the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism and the Russell Sage Visiting Journalist fellowship. Carr also led an investigative education reporting team at the Boston Globe, The Great Divide. She is the author of “Hope Against Hope” (Bloomsbury, 2013), about New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina. More by Sarah Carr
Amanda Dilone
PROGRAM ASSISTANT
Amanda Dilone manages The Hechinger Report’s relationships with freelancers, technology supplies and office in Morningside Heights. She has a degree in media communications from Lehman College and certificates in project management and digital sales. More by Amanda Dilone
Nichole Dobo
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Nichole Dobo manages audience engagement and innovation strategy for The Hechinger Report. In 2021, she was awarded a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship from the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in publications including the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic, High Country News and Slate. She worked at local and statewide newspapers earlier in her career, earning a variety of awards. Dobo, who grew up in rural western Pennsylvania, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The Pennsylvania State University. More by Nichole Dobo
Camilla Forte
WEB & PHOTO PRODUCER
Camilla Forte supports the Web Editor and Multimedia Editor with daily posting and photo selection. Prior to joining the Hechinger Report in 2021, she worked as the director of photography for the Columbia Chronicle and was a photographer for the New York Times Institute. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism. More by Camilla Forte
Ruby Franzen
DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Ruby Franzen helps maintain, operate and expand our membership and sponsorship programs. Previously, she managed fundraising events for SuitUp, a career development nonprofit. Since 2017, she has run Pass Down the Gown, a dress rental nonprofit, primarily focusing on serving high school students with prom dresses. Franzen has a bachelor degree in Economics and International Relations from the University of San Francisco.
Ariel Gilreath
SOUTHERN EDUCATION REPORTER
Ariel Gilreath covers early education and K-12 schools in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia. She most recently covered education and family issues in South Carolina with the Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network, where she received first place in education reporting from the South Carolina Press Association for her coverage in 2020. She has previously covered education for the Greenville Journal and the Index-Journal in South Carolina. Gilreath graduated from Winthrop University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. More by Ariel Gilreath
Noble Ingram
ENGAGEMENT EDITOR
Noble Ingram supports audience engagement at The Hechinger Report. He has worked as a reporter or editor covering K-12 schools and higher education for publications including Educational Leadership magazine, EdSurge, The 74 and the Christian Science Monitor. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College. More by Noble Ingram
Barbara Kantrowitz
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Barbara Kantrowitz is an award-winning magazine editor and writer. She worked at Newsweek for nearly 25 years in the magazine’s society section, where she wrote and edited dozens of cover stories on health, education, religion and women’s issues. Kantrowitz has also worked at People, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday and The Hartford Courant, and has freelanced for many national publications. She is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she has been an adjunct professor since 2009. More by Barbara Kantrowitz
Fazil Khan
DATA REPORTER
Fazil Khan, who died in 2024, was a Hechinger Report data reporter responsible for gathering and analyzing education data and collaborating with other reporters to expose inequality and examine innovation in education. He was a 2021 graduate of the M.S. Data Journalism program at Columbia Journalism School where he was also chosen as a post-graduate fellow for the school’s Global Migration Project. He started his career as a copyeditor at one of India’s leading business dailies in 2018 and had been working as a correspondent at CNN-News18 in Delhi, India, before moving to New York in 2020 for his graduate degree.
Read our tribute to our friend and colleague. More by Fazil Khan
Meredith Kolodner
SENIOR INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER
Meredith Kolodner writes investigative articles and produces data analyses for higher education and K-12 stories. She previously covered schools for the New York Daily News and was an editor at Inside Schools and The Investigative Fund (now called Type Investigations). She also covered housing, schools, and local government for the Press of Atlantic City and The Chief-Leader newspaper. Her work has appeared in local and national news outlets, including NBC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post. She received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. More by Meredith Kolodner
Jackie Mader
SENIOR REPORTER
Jackie Mader covers early childhood education and writes the early ed newsletter. In her ten years at Hechinger, she has covered a range of topics including teacher preparation, special education and rural schools. She previously worked as a special education teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, and trained new teachers in Mississippi. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, USA TODAY, TIME and NBC News and has won several awards, including the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Nellie Bly Award from The New York Press Club and a Front Page Award from The Newswomen’s Club of New York. In 2021, she was one of two American journalists chosen for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma’s Early Childhood Development Fellowship. She received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. More by Jackie Mader
Jon Marcus
SENIOR HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTER
Jon Marcus writes and edits stories about, and helps plan coverage of, higher education. A former magazine editor, he has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Wired, Medium.com and the Times (U.K.) Higher Education magazine, among others. His work has been honored by the National Headliner Awards, Mirror Awards, National Awards for Education Reporting, City and Regional Magazine Association, Deadline Club of New York City and others. Marcus holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, attended Oxford University, and teaches journalism at Boston College and Northeastern University. More by Jon Marcus
Davin McHenry
WEB EDITOR
Davin McHenry is the web editor, responsible for overseeing The Hechinger Report website and supporting technical innovations that enhance the site. He has worked at Hechinger since the site’s founding in 2010. Before that, he worked at several newspapers in California, starting as a reporter and working his way up to web editor. McHenry is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lawrie Mifflin
SENIOR EDITOR FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Lawrie Mifflin is responsible for overseeing higher education coverage at The Hechinger Report. She assigns and edits the stories of both staff and freelance reporters. Before joining Hechinger in 2015, she spent 30 years at The New York Times, as a reporter, editor and executive supervising new digital initiatives. During her time leading the fledgling television and video departments, The Times won three Alfred I. DuPont Silver Batons, two documentary Emmy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Early in her career, Mifflin was a sportswriter. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in history and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. More by Lawrie Mifflin
Chelsea Slosky Miller
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Chelsea Slosky Miller helps maintain Hechinger’s revenue streams and advance an overarching strategy for its long-term sustainability, including finding new sources of funding. She has more than 17 years of nonprofit fundraising experience, most recently at The New Press, a preeminent public interest book publisher. At New Press, Miller broadened fundraising operations, professionalized institutional communications, established its annual Social Justice Awards gala and expanded its board of directors. She previously enjoyed eight years at the Brennan Center for Justice, growing individual and foundation fundraising to help that distinguished think tank develop into a dominant public policy institute. Miller earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Smith College.
Neal Morton
WESTERN EDUCATION REPORTER
Neal Morton covers K-12 schools in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. He most recently worked with the Education Lab team at The Seattle Times, and previously covered education for The Las Vegas Review-Journal in Nevada and The (McAllen) Monitor in Texas. His work has appeared in High Country News, Huffington Post, PBS NewsHour, USA TODAY and local media outlets. Morton graduated from a Las Vegas high school before attending the University of Nevada, Reno, to major in journalism. More by Neal Morton
Caroline Preston
MANAGING EDITOR
Caroline Preston is managing editor who helps oversee Hechinger’s K-12 and higher ed coverage. She previously worked as a features editor with Al Jazeera America’s digital team and a senior reporter with The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Her writing has appeared in publications including NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Wired.com, while stories she has edited or written have been honored by the Data Journalism Awards, the Education Writers Association, the Online News Association and others. Preston holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. More by Caroline Preston
Javeria Salman
STAFF WRITER
Javeria Salman is a staff writer, and she reports and writes the Future of Learning newsletter. She covers K-12 education issues through the lens of innovation and technology, and helps manage social media. Before joining Hechinger in 2019, she worked as a local news reporter in eastern North Carolina. Her work for Hechinger has appeared in Telemundo, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, The Christian Science Monitor and the Solutions Journalism Network. She attended community college in New Jersey before graduating with a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University. More by Javeria Salman
Christina A. Samuels
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
Christina Samuels oversees coverage of early childhood education, as well as K-12 education in the South. Samuels previously worked at Education Week, where she covered topics such as educational equity, special education, early childhood education and school district governance. She also had stints as a staff writer at The Washington Post and The Miami Herald. In 2009, she was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, and in 2011 she participated in the Education Policy Fellowship Program in Washington, D.C. Samuels earned a bachelor’s degree in newspaper journalism from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. More by Christina A. Samuels
Olivia Sanchez
HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTER
Olivia Sanchez is a higher education reporter. She previously covered local and state government for the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland. Sanchez earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Portland and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. More by Olivia Sanchez
Salina Sanchez-Morroni
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
Salina Sanchez-Morroni is the senior manager for all of The Hechinger Report’s business and administration operations. She oversees managerial and financial accounting, and manages grant administration and organizational policy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from Purchase College, SUNY, a master’s degree in English from New York University and has completed several certificate programs in bookkeeping, accounting and nonprofit management.
Anthony Session Jr.
CONTRACTS & PROGRAM ASSOCIATE
Anthony Session Jr. maintains the contracts, orders and expense reporting of The Hechinger Report’s writing team and freelancers. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Monroe College.
Justin Snider
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Justin Snider is a contributing editor at The Hechinger Report. He is an assistant dean at Columbia University, where he also teaches undergraduate writing. Previously, Snider taught high-school English and advised student publications in the United States, Europe and Asia. A California native, he holds degrees from Amherst College, the University of Chicago, the University of Vienna, Harvard University and Columbia University. Snider’s fanatical devotion to the written word generally and to English grammar specifically can be traced to the worst grade of his life — a check-minus — on his report card in second-grade Language Arts, taught by his own mother. More by Justin Snider