Staff

Tim Anderson

Tim is PublicSource’s business partnerships coordinator. He contributes to PublicSource’s growth by building relationships with local and national businesses and nonprofits. He is a graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. Hailing from Minnesota with his partner and goldendoodle, Tim is excited to begin his new chapter as a Pittsburgher and member of the PublicSource team.

Tanya Babbar

Tanya Babbar is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in English nonfiction writing and minoring in creative writing. She’s lived 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh for most of her life, but she and her family got their start in Northern Ireland before coming to the U.S. Tanya writes stories about campus culture and events at The Pitt News and enjoys seeking out the diverse stories the people of Pittsburgh have to share. In her free time, Tanya likes to rollerskate, read on the front-porch, doodle poorly in her sketch pad, hang out with friends and show anyone and everyone a million photos of her cat, Jupiter, or Juppi for short.

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Emma Folts

Emma is a higher education reporter for PublicSource. In her role, she collaborates with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on strengthening higher education coverage in local communities. Emma is particularly interested in reporting on issues of equity and accessibility in higher education. She first joined PublicSource as a reporting intern in summer 2020, and she was an editorial intern for the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2021. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in newspaper and online journalism. More by Emma Folts

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Quinn Glabicki

Quinn Glabicki is a writer and photographer covering climate and environment for PublicSource. He is also a Report for America corps member. Quinn uses visual and written mediums to tell stories about how people in Western Pennsylvania interact with their environment and how climate change is impacting local communities. Previously, Quinn worked as a freelance photojournalist based in Pittsburgh. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Haverford College. More by Quinn Glabicki

Eric Jankiewicz

Eric Jankiewicz is a reporter focused on housing and economic development for PublicSource. A native New Yorker, Eric moved to Pittsburgh in 2017 and has since fallen in love with his adopted city, even if the city hasn’t yet fallen in love with him. Before joining PublicSource, Eric was a court reporter for the Butler Eagle, where he covered criminal and civil proceedings, including several murder trials. Eric has also worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and NBC News. Eric graduated from CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. When he isn’t working, Eric likes to split his time between finding the best pizza in Pittsburgh and traveling around the area for whitewater kayaking. More by Eric Jankiewicz

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Jennie Liska

Jennie is PublicSource’s executive director, revenue and operations. She oversees revenue generation and relationship development to support the growth of PublicSource and manages internal business operations. Before joining PublicSource, Jennie worked for Accenture in management and technology consulting. She also served on PublicSource’s Board of Directors from 2016 to 2018. Jennie is a graduate of Penn State University. More by Jennie Liska

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Amaya Lobato

Amaya Lobato-Rivas is a third-year student at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in media and professional communication and minoring in film and media studies. Originally from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, Amaya uses photography to connect with the people around her, both strangers and loved ones. As much as she enjoys island life, Amaya appreciates Pittsburgh and the photographic opportunities it has to offer. Aside from her personal photo projects, she is a photographer for The Pitt News, and freelanced for PublicSource before her internship. When she’s not taking pictures, Amaya enjoys nature walks, making playlists on Spotify and watching movies. More by Amaya Lobato

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Rich Lord

Rich is the managing editor of PublicSource. He joined the team in 2020, serving as a reporter focused on housing and economic development and an assistant editor. He reported for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2005 through early 2020, leading projects on child poverty, the opioid epidemic, communities with concentrations of people accessing mental health services, and the federal use of confidential informants. He has covered the federal court and city government beats, and was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting, for reporting on the Tree of Life massacre. Rich has also worked for the Pittsburgh City Paper and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He wrote a 2004 book about the subprime mortgage industry, called “American Nightmare: Predatory Lending and the Foreclosure of the American Dream.” His first journalistic foray was a column on the challenge of finding vegetarian food in Pittsburgh restaurants, published in 1994. Rich graduated from George Washington University, and he and his family can often be found on Western Pennsylvania bike trails. More by Rich Lord

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Alina McMahon

Alina McMahon is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in marketing, minoring in film and pursuing a certificate in leadership and ethics. She’s originally from Richmond, Virginia, but had to migrate away from the heat. Alina is the co-vice president of Key Creations, a student-run consulting firm within Pitt’s chapter of the American Marketing Association. She’s also involved in student-run magazine Studio Four One Two and serves as the communications and editorial strategist for feminist film publication agnès films. This summer she interned in the social media and strategy departments at GH Advertising, and last spring she was a digital marketing intern at Responsival. When she’s not updating her resume and posting on LinkedIn, Alina enjoys overanalyzing every movie she watches, trying out new recipes with her roommates, and traveling as much as her budget allows.

Stephanie Mirah

Stephanie Mirah is the audience growth and engagement producer for PublicSource. In her role, she will continue to cultivate relationships with current PublicSource readers and subscribers while seeking new audiences both in person and online through social media, newsletters and more. Originally from Southeastern Pennsylvania, Stephanie attended American University in Washington, D.C., and received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and literature. Most recently, she worked as a business reporter for The Post and Courier in South Carolina. More by Stephanie Mirah

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Lajja Mistry

Lajja is the K-12 Education Reporter at PublicSource. Originally from India, she moved to the States in 2021 to pursue a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. Before joining PublicSource, she worked as a staff reporter and the Photo-Social Editor for Annenberg Media. Her work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Caravan and the Los Angeles Review of Books among others. She wants to use journalism as a means to follow her passion for storytelling through text and visually driven stories. When she isn’t working, Lajja likes to journal, sing and go bird-watching. More by Lajja Mistry

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Alyia Paulding

Alyia (she/they) is the Director of Membership and Development at PublicSource, working to establish and nurture relationships with donors and funders. Before joining PublicSource in 2020, she worked to capture impact, convene support, and inspire action at nonprofits including the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Youth Collaboratory, and the Student Conservation Association. She was selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News as a 2023 member of the Emerging Leaders Council. She received her GPC (Grant Professional Certified) credential in 2023. A native Pittsburgher, she holds an associate’s degree in social science from the Community College of Allegheny County. She enjoys crochet, challenging board games, and unhurried hikes with her wife, and she’s a stalwart friend of the Oxford Comma (sorry, journalism colleagues). You can email her by clicking the envelope logo below, or scrolling up to the list of staff email addresses.

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Venuri Siriwardane

Venuri Siriwardane is a health reporter for PublicSource, with a focus
on mental health. She comes to PublicSource through the Staunton Farm
Mental Health Reporting Fellowship.

Venuri has a dual background in journalism and social science
research. As a reporter, she’s covered tech and business for Inc.
magazine and The Star-Ledger in New Jersey. As a researcher, she’s
studied the California DMV’s treatment of undocumented people. She
holds a master’s degree in politics and communication from The London
School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple
University. She loves playing tennis and reading about South Asian
history and politics. Contact: venuri@publicsource.org. More by Venuri Siriwardane

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Halle Stockton

Halle is executive director, editor-in-chief of PublicSource. She has served as editor-in-chief since May 2022 after seven years as managing editor during which PublicSource won two consecutive international awards for general excellence from the Online News Association (2020, 2021). In 2017, the Institute for Nonprofit News selected Halle as one of 10 Emerging Leaders in U.S. nonprofit journalism. Prior to that, Halle was a reporter for PublicSource for three years and for the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune for four years. Halle has won several awards for her journalism; most notably, she was named a 2016 finalist for the prestigious Livingston Awards for Young Journalists and earned a national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2015. She is a graduate of the Leadership Development Initiative program in Pittsburgh and an alumna of the American Council on Germany’s Young Leaders program. The Erie, Pa., native is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and its Daily Collegian. More by Halle Stockton

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Stephanie Strasburg

Stephanie Strasburg is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker at PublicSource. Her recent work includes an investigation on sexual abuse in the Amish and Mennonite communities for which she and her fellow Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and awarded a Mid-Atlantic Emmy. She is part of the team that received the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. Her other projects examine the generational imprint of overdose, industry’s impact on Pennsylvania’s small cities and child poverty. A believer in photography’s ability to connect community, she serves as the education liaison for the Pittsburgh chapter of Video Consortium and is on a constant quest to pay it forward. More by Stephanie Strasburg

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Natasha Vicens

Natasha is PublicSource’s creative director. She runs the organizations visuals team, edits and produces interactive graphics, data visualizations and web packages for PublicSource. She manages the website and works with PublicSource’s team of reporters, editors, videographers, photographers and freelancers to make stories more engaging for readers. She previously worked as PublicSource’s environmental reporter for three years. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, she graduated with a master’s degree from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix where she specialized in multimedia coverage of border issues and politics.

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Alexis Wary

Alexis Wary (she/her) recently graduated from Point Park University with a degree in journalism and a minor in photography. Alexis is originally from Sunbury, which is about 4 hours east of Pittsburgh. Outside of this internship, she is the communications and marketing intern at The Pittsburgh Foundation. She studied abroad for five months at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK, during the spring 2022 semester. Alexis was a staff photographer and occasional writer for Point Park’s student-led newspaper The Globe. She was the photo editor for the Refugee Report Magazine for her magazine reporting class last semester. For her capstone project, she created a photo essay and wrote an article on bike safety throughout Pittsburgh. Alexis looks forward to learning how to expand her photography and storytelling skills to produce both creative and documentative images during her time at the PublicSource. In her free time, Alexis loves to listen to music, shoot analog film photography, find delicious food spots and read as much as possible. More by Alexis Wary

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Jamie Wiggan

Jamie began his journalism career at a local news startup in McKees Rocks, where he learned the trade covering local school boards and municipalities, and left four years later as editor-in-chief. He comes to PublicSource after a stint as news editor for Pittsburgh City Paper. Originally from Manchester, England, Jamie studied music in college and enjoyed some brief success drumming in rock bands before realizing his incessant curiosity outshone his rhythmic skills – prompting a return to school, a transatlantic move and ultimately a career in journalism. More by Jamie Wiggan

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Charlie Wolfson

Charlie Wolfson is an enterprise reporter for PublicSource, focusing on local government accountability in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. He is also a Report for America corps member. Charlie aims to focus stories on how they impact residents rather than on party politics. Previously, Charlie worked at the Boston Globe, first as a student co-op and then as a sports and metro correspondent. Prior to joining PublicSource as a full-time reporter, he covered issues surrounding election law and voting access throughout the 2020 election cycle as a freelance reporter for PublicSource. He graduated in 2020 with a degree in journalism and political science from Northeastern University. More by Charlie Wolfson

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Erin Yudt

Erin Yudt is a senior at Point Park University majoring in journalism and minoring in psychology. She’s originally from Sharpsville, about an hour north of the ‘Burgh. Erin is the current editor-in-chief of Point Park’s student-run newspaper The Globe, an apprentice for the Point Park News Service and news director for the student-run radio station WPPJ. She has interned for Trib Total Media and The Sharon Herald. When she’s not filling her planner, Erin enjoys reading cheesy romance novels, watching terrible reality television and exploring Pittsburgh with her friends. More by Erin Yudt

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