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Carmen Valencia

Carmen Valencia is a Latina independent journalist based in San Diego and a two-time Emmy Award and Associated Press winner. Growing up along the U.S.-Mexico border profoundly shaped her personal and professional journey. She previously worked at Spectrum News Network in Los Angeles and served as an immigration video correspondent for Yahoo News. Carmen’s reporting covers immigration, politics, and social justice, with a focus on elevating voices of Latino and underrepresented communities. Committed to holding power accountable, she brings a deep passion for empathetic, non-extractive, and compassionate storytelling.

Victoria Valenzuela

Victoria Valenzuela is an independent journalist in California covering immigration, prison reform, and Chicano activism. She has a Master’s in specialized journalism with a concentration in social justice and investigations from the University of Southern California. She has been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, The Intercept, Ms. Magazine, Bolts Magazine, and more. She previously worked with NAHJ as an intern and was a member of the student committee, and has also worked with The Marshall Project as an audience engagement intern, was an emerging reporter fellow with ProPublica, an uprising fellow with Just Media, and an inaugural fellow with the Law and Justice Journalism Project.

MATTHEW VAN METER

Matthew Van Meter's reporting on criminal justice and civil rights has appeared in The New Republic and The Atlantic, and he is the author of DEEP DELTA JUSTICE: A Black Teen, His Lawyer, and Their Groundbreaking Battle for Civil Rights in the South. He lives in Detroit, where he writes, teaches, and facilitates a theatre program for incarcerated women.

AITANA VARGAS

Aitana Vargas is a Columbia University graduate and an award-winning on-camera news reporter, foreign correspondent and live tennis commentator based in Los Angeles. She began her career anchoring a local Spanish-language TV show while obtaining her BS in Physics from Berry College and then interned at the BBC, CNN International and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Communications Department in Germany. Her Master’s thesis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Columbia University was supervised by Professor Rashid Khalidi. Her stories have appeared on Público, EFE, CNN Expansión, Narratively, Hoy Los Ángeles, the LA Times, DirecTV Sports, TVE Internacional, Cuatro/Telecinco TV Network, HITN TV Network and others. She’s received several LA Press Club awards (Investigative Series, Sports Journalist of the Year, Obituary, Consumer, Sports & Hard News), the 2018 Berry College Outstanding Young Alumni Award and is a Livingston Award finalist. Aitana was also the Spanish-English interpreter for transgender artist Daniela Vega, lead actress in Academy Award-winning film "A Fantastic Woman." Learn more about her at aitanavargas.com

TINA VASQUEZ

Tina Vasquez is a senior staff writer at The Counter, where she reports on gender, labor, immigration, and food systems. She is The Counter’s first immigration reporter. Vasquez was the southern fellow in Type Investigations’ 2020-2021 Ida B. Wells Fellowship and a member of Poynter’s 2021 Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color. She is currently working on a book for The New Press about reproductive injustice in the U.S. immigration system.

Paulina Velasco

Paulina Velasco is a multilingual journalist based in California. She has made narrative documentaries and interview shows for 10 years for a variety of outlets, including Marketplace, LWC Studios, Slate, Pacifica Radio and NPR member stations. She writes for The Guardian about immigrants’ experiences in Southern California and particularly at the San Diego-Tijuana border–just 10 miles from where she grew up. Paulina was also the editor of the inaugural season of 100 Latina Birthdays, an audio documentary series about Latina health in the U.S. Her political science education helps her interrogate structures and policies, and her curiosity and empathy empowers her to accurately portray the lives of people who are often misrepresented in the media. She has lived in Mexico, France and New Zealand, and loves reading books by Latina authors — a group she one day aspires to join. Portrait by Las Fotos Project.

VALERIA VENTURINI

Valeria Venturini was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She is studying Broadcast Journalism with a minor in Social Media Marketing and E-Analytics at Florida International University (FIU). Valeria is a reporter for FIU's student-led video web series, The South Florida Access. Currently, she is the marketing director of the NAHJ-FIU Chapter. Her Instagram is @ventuparaca, and you can find her on Twitter at @valeriaventu

Danielle Villasana

Danielle Villasana is a photojournalist based in her hometown of Houston, Texas, focusing on human rights, gender, displacement, and health throughout the Americas. She’s the 2022 Alexia Grant Professional Winner, a National Geographic Explorer, Magnum Foundation awardee, Women Photograph grantee, IWMF fellow, and alumna of the Eddie Adams Workshop. With a strong belief in photography paired with education and community, she’s a co-founder of We, Women, an Authority Collective board member, on The Everyday Projects’ Community Team, and a Photo Bill of Rights co-author. She’s also a member of Women Photograph, Diversify Photo, and Ayün Fotógrafas.

Gabriela Olga Villegas

Gabriela Olga Villegas is a regional digital content editor for Univision Texas and Chicago. She is the winner of a Lone Star EMMY for winter weather coverage in North Texas with the Noticias 23 team. She worked for more than seven years as a journalist for El Norte and Reforma in Monterrey, Mexico, where she began in daily news coverage and also conducted investigative journalism focused on corruption that had a national impact, such as the detour of resources in social programs and the favoritism of politicians with companies to distribute contracts and bids.