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.

Dakota Castro-Jarrett

Dakota Castro-Jarrett is a second-year student at Northeastern University in Boston, studying journalism and cultural anthropology. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Dakota has written for his school’s independent student newspaper The Huntington News, his school’s music magazine Tastemakers, as well as writing a 2021 essay for PublicSource. He begins his internship pursuing stories focused on education and politics. During his free time he enjoys listening to music and exploring all the local oddities in the Pittsburgh area. More by Dakota Castro-Jarrett

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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

Jourdan Hicks

Jourdan is a senior community correspondent at PublicSource. Previously, Jourdan was engaged as a community-based educator in the Hazelwood section of the city. A lifelong Pittsburgh resident, she’s received formal training and degrees from both Penn State and Duquesne University (B.A Communications Arts & Sciences, M.S.Ed Educational Studies). In addition to her community correspondent work with PublicSource, Jourdan cultivates ideas as a freelance media-communications and education adviser. In her leisure, Jourdan enjoys traveling, discovering new music and watching (mostly critiquing) contemporary film. Preferred pronouns: She/Her/Herself. More by Jourdan Hicks

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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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Photos and text by Amaya Lobato-Rivas

Amaya Lobato-Rivas, was a former PublicSource photojournalism intern, is a second-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 rom-coms. More by Photos and text by Amaya Lobato-Rivas

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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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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 Membership and Development Manager 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. 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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Betul Tuncer

Betul Tuncer is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in media and professional communications and legal studies with a certificate in digital media. A longtime Pittsburgh resident, Betul has worked at The Pitt News for three years, taking on positions of staff writer, assistant news editor and most recently managing editor. She has an interest in writing and storytelling and hopes to pursue a career in journalism. When she’s not working to grow her experience in journalism, Betul enjoys reading, visiting museums and taking photos with 35mm film. More by Betul Tuncer

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First-person essay by Kalilah Stein

Kalilah Stein is a freshman at Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy [SciTech] in the Pittsburgh Public School District. She has lived her whole life in Pittsburgh and seen both its beauties and issues firsthand. Focused on fact-checking for PublicSource, she hopes to help work toward a better Pittsburgh and pursue a career in journalism. In her free time she enjoys reading, painting and exploring the city. More by First-person essay by Kalilah Stein

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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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Amelia Winger

Amelia Winger is a health reporter for PublicSource, with a focus on mental health. She is telling solutions-oriented stories that combine human experiences with broader context about data and policies. She comes to PublicSource through the Staunton Farm Mental Health Reporting Fellowship.
Previously, Amelia served PublicSource as an editorial intern in fall 2021 and later interned for WHYY, covering gun violence prevention initiatives in Philadelphia. Amelia is a 2022 graduate of Temple University, where she studied journalism and political science. More by Amelia Winger

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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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