Get to know the inspiring women who have been recognized as 2018 JAWS fellows and will be attending the Conference and Mentoring Project in Welches, Ore. in October.
2018 Emerging Journalist fellows
Sydney Greene is a full-time reporting fellow at The Texas Tribune, where she covers state politics and policy at The Texas Tribune through breaking news and enterprise stories. A recent graduate of Arizona State University, Sydney’s passion in journalism is to help tell the stories of underrepresented communities.
Aysha Khan is a Boston-based journalist working at the Religion News Service as a social media editor and freelance reporter covering Islam. Aysha’s work, which focuses on Muslims in America and digital culture, appears in the Washington Post, NBC, VICE, ThinkProgress and more. She also runs a newsletter, “Creeping Sharia.”
Katie Jickling, a reporter for Seven Days in Burlington, Vermont, has written about everything from education and local elections to a police chief’s social media activism and a father’s efforts to care for his mentally ill son. She founded the nonprofit GEMS, which offers leadership training for middle school girls in central Vermont.
Marina Fang’s work as a reporter at HuffPost ranges from live coverage of major events to daily, feature, and analysis stories on the intersection of politics and culture. Marina is a 2015 graduate of the University of Chicago and a proud alum of UChicago’s student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon.
Marielle Argueza is a staff writer and calendar editor for the Monterey County Weekly. She focuses mostly on K-12 education in her reporting, and has also written on issues of homelessness, immigration and food. Passionate about training the next generation of future journalists, Marielle leads the Weekly’s internship program.
Jazmin Goodwin recently graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in graphic design from Howard University, where she served as editor-in-chief of The Hilltop. Jazmin is an incoming graduate student at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism and the recipient of the inaugural Ida B. Wells Society Scholarship.
Mariana Cid De Leon Ovalle is a copywriter for a small business magazine. As an intern, she has enjoyed learning about the B2B format, as well as SEO writing. She holds degrees in American Literature and Mexican American studies, and lives with her husband, two kids and three pups in San Antonio.
Pauly Denetclaw is a reporter for the Navajo Times in Window Rock, Arizona. She was previously a Senior Fellow for Generation Justice (GJ), a nationally recognized multimedia projects that teaches young people how to harness the power of media. A proud citizen of the Navajo Nation, Pauly prioritizes Indigenous communities in her reporting.
Sana Malik is a documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist who has produced video for the Toronto Star and the Canadian Press, and written for BuzzFeed, VICE and the CBC on issues of immigration, labor and inclusion. Sana founded an award-winning platform for multimedia storytellers of color called This is Worldtown.
Asal Ehsanipour is a radio reporter and producer based in San Francisco. She is trained on all aspects of radio production through KALW’s Audio Academy, and currently interns for California Foodways, a public radio series and podcast about the intersection of food, culture, and economics in every county in California.
2018 Entrepreneurial fellow
Amy Westervelt is an award-winning print and radio reporter and editor. She co-founded Critical Frequency, an independent podcast network focused on elevating the voices of people who tend to have less access to media platforms, including women, people of color, LGBTQ podcasters, and people living outside the country’s media centers.
2018 Next Step fellow
Leezel Tanglao is a multimedia journalist at the intersection of editorial, product, business development and sales. She led a global team as Assistant Managing Editor of Programming at CNNMoney. Leezel has also launched products like the proprietary social metric SURGE and worked at CBSNews.com, VICE, NowThis, KCBS/KCAL and more.
2018 Diversity fellow
Jazmin Bailey is an Emmy Award-winning anchor for WESH 2 News Sunrise in Orlando, Florida. One of her priorities is ensuring more live interviews are from people of color. As the only anchor in the market to embrace her natural hair on-air, Jazmin makes a valuable statement about inclusion.
2018 Betsy Wade Legacy Fund fellows
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer is an LA-based journalist and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. Her work frequently focuses on inequality and social justice for women and people of color, with recent bylines in Columbia Journalism Review and The Intercept. She covered marginalized communities as a news editor for TakePart.com.
Ariel Worthy is the youngest woman editor in the 54-year history of the Birmingham Times. Her beats include health, politics, business, lifestyle, human interest and local news. She is also the vice president of the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists.