RoA Microgrants 2024
We're excited to announce today the recipients of our first-ever microgrants! Over the last three years, Reporting on Addiction has worked to support journalists investigating addiction and recovery in our communities, and these microgrants will further support that work in local news.
This year’s recipients are Emily Bader of The Maine Monitor, Kylie Cameron of KMUW and Tynesha McCullers of the Nubian Message/WKNC. This year’s student recipient is Francia Garcia Hernandez who will publish her story with Block Club Chicago.
A panel of four external judges that represent the three areas of focus in Reporting on Addiction's mission reviewed the applications. This year’s judges included Dr. Lyn O'Connell of Marshall University, Heather Rodriguez of Mental Health America Indiana and the Indiana Recovery Network, Steven Potter of PBS Wisconsin, and Alexis Allison of Tarrant County College and a former Complicating the Narrative Fellow from the Solutions Journalism Network.
We are excited to support these journalists through these microgrants and are grateful to people like you who believe in Reporting on Addiction’s mission. Funding for these grants is provided by the Solutions Journalism Network’s Complicating the Narrative Fellowship. As a 2023 CTN fellow, Co-director Ashton Marra has committed to using the fellowship resources to support these microgrants.
At Reporting on Addiction, we are committed to supporting journalists in the exploration of addiction, treatment and recovery with a focus on assisting newsrooms in telling stories that investigate the solutions to this problem – or lack thereof – in our communities.
2024 Microgrant Recipients
Emily Bader is a health care and general assignment reporter for The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative outlet. Previously, she covered health for the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine, where she was a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Data Fellow. Her work has been recognized by the Maine Press Association, the New England Newspaper & Press Association and the Maine Public Health Association. Bader will investigate Maine’s lack of state support for parents seeking treatment and recovery.
Jonathan JK Stoltman
Kylie Cameron is a reporter for KMUW, Wichita's NPR affiliate, where she covers substance use, addiction and Wichita City Hall. Cameron also has experience working at a local TV station and was previously editor-in-chief of The Sunflower, Wichita State's student newspaper. Cameron is also a person in recovery from her chaotic relationship with substances and is soon to celebrate one and a half years of sobriety. Cameron will investigate access to housing and recovery resources in Wichita.
Jonathan JK Stoltman
Tynesha McCullers is a Provost Fellow and Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at North Carolina State University. She serves as a correspondent for the Nubian Message, an editor at the Digital Ethnic Futures Lab at Dartmouth College, and a fellow and writer at the Black Communication & Technology Lab at the University of Maryland-College Park. As an educator and advocate with expertise in social justice education and experience in harm reduction, McCullers prioritizes trauma-informed care when working with communities facing discrimination and stigmatization. In 2023, she was named an inaugural James Patterson Writer Education Scholar honoring her dedication to teaching writing and critical media literacy. McCullers holds an M.Ed. in Higher Education & Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Vermont and a B.S. in Human Development & Family Studies from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Tynesha will investigate the effects of alcohol culture among recovering graduate students in North Carolina.
Jonathan JK Stoltman
Francia Garcia-Hernandez is a journalist and communications strategist from Mexico City. She is a local news reporter covering Chicago communities, immigrant communities, arts and culture, local government and more. She also manages communications for the media literacy nonprofit the Media Education Lab. Hernandez holds a master's in Civic Media from Columbia College Chicago and a B.A. in Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Management from Universidad Anahuac Mexico Norte. She has over five years of experience managing communications and sustainability programs in the businesses and nonprofit sectors in Mexico and the U.S. Hernandez will investigate access to addiction treatment in Chicago’s West Side neighborhood.
Jonathan JK Stoltman
2024 Microgrant Judges
Alexis Allison is an independent journalist and teacher in north Texas. She has a master's in journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism and bakes at a pastry shop part-time. She's taught hundreds of students from California to Iraq and hopes her reporting is likewise educational.
Dr. Lyn O’Connell is a professional in the field of mental health and substance use in Huntington, West Virginia. As the associate director for the Division of Addiction Sciences and assistant faculty in the Department of Family Medicine, she plays a pivotal role in addressing the impact of substance use on individuals, families, and the community. Dr. O'Connell is a licensed Independent Marriage and Family Therapist (IMFT) in the state of Ohio and West Virginia.
Steven Potter has been a reporter and producer at newspapers, magazines, online news outlets and for public radio. He now reports for PBS Wisconsin where he covers everything from education and politics to the economy and environmental issues. He is an active member of his local recovery community and has been sober for several years.
Heather Rodriguez is Vice President of Mental Health America of Indiana Recovery Advocacy and Programs, Director of the Indiana Recovery Network, and Interim Director of Indiana Addiction Issues Coalition. Rodriguez helped create the Indiana Recovery Network which serves as Indiana’s recovery resource locator and oversees the statewide Regional Recovery Hub program which consists of 20 organizations providing free peer recovery support services to all 92 Indiana counties. Rodriguez is a person in sustained recovery and believes that recovery supports are an integral part of an individual's journey to overcome challenges associated with substance use and or mental health concerns and that individuals have a right to choose which pathway of recovery works best for them.