Zozan Yasar is a Kurdish journalist based in the United Kingdom who focuses on Middle East politics, refugees, and women. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, BBC, The New Humanitarian Practice Network, and the Voice of America, among others.
Yasar attempted to establish a freelance career in the U.K. right before the pandemic started. A veteran journalist covering the Middle East in Turkey but relatively new to the U.K., she encountered many challenges including financial instability, online harassment, lack of network, isolation, and mental breakdown during the pandemic. In this interview, she recalled the traumas she experienced as a Kurdish woman journalist and compared the challenges she faced in the Middle East and the U.K.
Youssra Jabeen from Pakistan is a video journalist with Arab News Pakistan. She was a development communications manager at the United Nations Development Program's Merged Areas Governance Program (MAGP) from March 2021 to November 2023. Before working for UNDP, Jabeen was a multimedia journalist with over 10 years of experience. She's interested in covering art and culture news, especially when they intersect with social issues such as women's rights and vulnerable communities. Her work has been published in major Pakistani news outlets such as BBC Urdu, Independent Urdu Dawn, and the Express Tribune. She also worked for the Dallas Morning News and received her degree in journalism from the United States.
Jabeen shared her insights on practicing journalism as a woman in Pakistan. In a patriarchal society, women journalists face gender stereotypes, sexual harassment, workplace bullying, and family pressure. In this interview, Jabeen talked about her reporting, gains, and losses during the pandemic. She reminded the next generation to remain hopeful and keep searching for one's purpose in life.
Stefania D'Ignoti from Catania, Italy, is a freelance journalist who covers migration, conflict, women’s rights, and organized crimes in the broader Mediterranean region. She has reported from Sicily, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, the Syrian border, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, The Economist, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, the BBC, the Guardian, and more.
D'Ignoti was forced to shift the reporting focus from the Middle East to Coronavirus in Italy overnight after her flight to Iraq was canceled due to a border lockdown. She mostly covered the impact of COVID-19 on migrants and asylum seekers. In this interview, she commented on the challenges of being a woman journalist in Italy, the gender disparity in newsrooms and leadership, the contributions of women journalists, and concerns about job security and safety as a freelance journalist. Despite the challenges, D'Ignoti considered the pandemic a booster of her career.
Sen Nguyen is an investigative journalist, podcast host, and producer based in Hong Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She covers policies and developments of public interest with a particular focus on marginalized populations in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. She has produced stories for Vietnam, Cambodia, the U.K., and Australia, and published them in the South China Morning Post, Al Jazeera, Thompson Reuters, CNN, and many others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen has published more than 100 articles, many of them focused on the pandemic, its development, and its impact on the local communities. Her story about the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant workers was one of the top five countries’ finalists for the Journalism for an Equitable Asia Award organized by the Oxfam and Asia Center in 2020.
Nguyen published more than 100 articles during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the development and impact of the pandemic on local communities. She recalled the early days of the pandemic, the reporting process of her award-winning stories, and the challenges of being a freelance woman journalist in the region.
Nirasha Piyawadani is a freelance journalist in Sri Lanka who covers stories on human rights, peace, migrant workers, gender-based myths, social issues on sexual and reproductive, media literacy, and climate and environmental issues. During the pandemic, Piyawadani was a research assistant for the ICFJ-UNESCO Global Study: Online Violence Against Women Journalists from 2020 to 2021. She has been selected as a scholar for the International Visitor Leadership Program on Edward R Murrow Program for Journalists, conducted by the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from February - March 2021.
Piyawadani covered the issues facing marginalized communities during the pandemic. In this interview, she reviewed what it is like to practice journalism in this region, especially the challenges facing freelance journalists and women journalists. Ethnic tensions, job insecurity, political corruption, and discrimination against minorities and women, are a few issues highlighted in this conversation.
Nikita Jain is an award-winning independent journalist based in India. She has covered various issues catering to human rights, conflict, gender, crime, health, education, and the environment. Her work has been published on national and international platforms including The Wire, Women’s Media Centre, The Diplomat, New Internationalist, and The News Lens, among others.
Jain published hundreds of articles during COVID-19 to document the impact of the pandemic on hospitals, patients, and minority groups in India. Her reporting challenged the government-controlled mainstream media that downplayed the severity of the pandemic. She had to dispute government propaganda, negotiate reporting access, and endure mental and physical health concerns to deliver those high-profile stories, some of which resulted in meaningful changes. She called the newsrooms and the public to recognize the talents of women journalists and acknowledge their work and contributions.
Megha Rajagopalan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative correspondent for the New York Times based in London, the United Kingdom. Previously, Rajagopalan was the China bureau chief and Asia correspondent for BuzzFeed News and a political correspondent at Reuters News Agency in Beijing, China. She has reported from 23 countries in Asia and the Middle East on stories ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to the peace process in Afghanistan. In 2021, Rajagopalan and her colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for “a series of clear and compelling stories that used satellite imagery and architectural expertise and interviews with two dozen former prisoners to identify a vast new infrastructure built by the Chinese government for the mass detention of Muslims.” (according to the Pulitzer website). When the pandemic hit in 2020, she was a senior international correspondent for BuzzFeed News.
In this interview, she recounted the reporting and production of the project that won her team the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting in 2021. She revealed how her team combined investigative reporting, data mapping, and architecture into journalistic storytelling, and how they collaborated remotely when travel was restricted. She also reflected on her experiences corresponding in China and working for Buzzfeed News.
Megan Clement from Montreuil, France, is a journalist, critic, and editor whose work focuses on gender equality, social policy, migration, human rights, arts, and culture. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Sydney Morning Herald, Al Jazeera, The New Humanitarian, and News Deeply, among other publications.
Clement, an Australian journalist living in Paris, France at the time, traveled across three continents and underwent four quarantines for work and family reasons during the pandemic. She published her quarantine experiences in the first-person voice and raised public attention to the mismanagement of quarantine protocols at hotels and public housing. She urged public attention to structural inequality in race and gender and called for more diversity of representation in story topics, newsroom staffing, and leadership.
Maria Hansson Botin is a radio journalist from Sweden. She is a documentary producer at Third Ear Studio. She has several years of experience making documentaries for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, Sveriges Radio, investigative journalism, news stories, and as a local fixer in Sweden for foreign media outlets.
Hansson Botin quit her freelance job and became an investigative reporter for a production company in the middle of the pandemic. She retrieved her memories of the ground situation in Sweden, the government policies (which were quite different from the other Western countries), and public reactions. This interview highlighted her experiences producing audio and investigative journalism pieces and documenting the impact of COVID on rural villages, and the spread of disinformation and misinformation. She also compared her experiences as a freelancer versus a staff reporter, and some challenges that she encountered as a woman journalist. Last, she urged future generations to understand that finding truth is an ongoing process and that journalism may improve its transparency to regain public trust.
Lenora Chu is a journalist, public speaker, and media strategist with over 15 years of experience in the U.S., China, and Europe. Now based in Berlin, Germany, she covers Europe for the nonprofit news organization Christian Science Monitor. A long-time journalist, Chu focuses on the intersection of politics, education, and culture in her reporting. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and New York magazine, among others. Her book, “Little Soldier” won the “Best Education Book of 2017” among other awards. In 2019, she was named to the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Chu, a journalist based in Berlin, Germany, was covering the pandemic impact in Europe for the Christian Science Monitor. In this interview, she recalled her trip to China in January 2020 where the coronavirus originated, and a conference later in Seattle where the U.S. documented its first COVID death. She compared the public attitudes toward science, government orders, and journalists in the U.S. and Germany, and how the two countries handled disinformation and misinformation. She traced the cultural, political, and historical factors that may have resulted in the differences between the two countries. She commented on the challenges of maintaining a work-life balance during lockdowns, changes to work routines, and women journalists' contributions.
Kathy Gannon covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Associated Press as chief correspondent and later news director for 35 years. She also covered the 2006 war in South Lebanon, the Iraq War, the Central Asian States, and the Middle East. Gannon was the only Western journalist allowed in Kabul by the Taliban in the weeks preceding the 2001 U.S.-British offensive in Afghanistan. In April 2014 Gannon was seriously wounded, hit by seven bullets while covering preparations for Afghan national elections when an Afghan police officer opened fire on the car in which she was riding. A Canadian native, she received numerous awards, including the 2022 Fall Semester Joan Shorenstein Fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard Kennedy School, the 2022 Columbia Journalism School Lifetime Award, the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage In Journalism Award, and many others. In May 2022, Gannon retired from the Associated Press.
Gannon recalled her reporting on COVID-19 on top of other regional conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She criticized the Western media's institutionalized double standard when covering foreign countries. Gannon believes in the role of journalists to witness and record history as a detached observer. She reviewed incidents where she pushed cultural, religious, and political restrictions against a woman to accomplish reporting tasks. She encouraged fellow women journalists to use their gender to their advantage and maneuver in challenging situations. She also urged more institutional attention and changes to resolve gender and race inequalities.
Jess DiPierro Obert reported on COVID-19 from Haiti. She is an investigative visual journalist, producer, and filmmaker who splits her time between Mexico City, Brooklyn, and Haiti. She focuses on solution-based storytelling around women and abortion, human rights, identity, and mental health in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the U.S. Her byline has appeared in Buzzfeed News, The Guardian, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, the New York Times and others.
DiPierro Obert did investigative reporting on vaccine hesitancy and mental health issues in Haiti during the pandemic, which increased public awareness and conversation about COVID-related issues. In this interview, she recalled the ground situation in Haiti, covering communities that denied COVID-19, interviewing women victims of gang violence, threats from gang leaders, and other challenges as a woman freelancer.
Jennifer Hassan is a London-based breaking news reporter for the foreign desk at the Washington Post. Before joining the Post in 2016, she worked as a social media editor at MailOnline.
Hassan, a London-based staff reporter for the Washington Post, probably contracted the coronavirus from a trip to Thailand before the U.K. announced its first case. She recalled her personal experiences of surviving COVID early on when no test was available. Once recovered, Hassan chased the 24/7 news cycle coordinating with the international team across the U.S., South Korea, and the U.K., and published over 900 articles during COVID. She shared her challenges and takeaways from reporting the pandemic and acknowledged the contributions of women journalists.
Jenna Le Bras is a French independent journalist based in West Africa. She works for French and foreign media, mainly in print and video media, including L'Orient le Jour, Jeune Afrique, BFMTV, Les Inrocks, Orient XXI, AFP, and Rue89.
Le Bras, a freelance journalist based in Ivory Coast, covered the West African regions for French publications during the pandemic. In this conversation, she recalled how she decided to stay and work in the area despite many challenges, including job security, mobility restrictions, health risks, and mental breakdown. She revealed the challenges and opportunities facing a freelance journalist in a foreign country and reflected on her gains and losses during the pandemic.
Iris Hsu from Taipei is the China representative at the Committee to Protect Journalists (or CPJ). Established in 1981, CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. It is made up of 40 experts around the world with its headquarter in New York City. Iris Hsu joined CPJ in 2017. Prior to joining CPJ, she interned at Human Rights Watch, the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, and the Atlantic Council.
Hsu commented on the reporting environment in China. In this interview, she drew past and current cases to demonstrate the status of press freedom, the challenges facing female journalists, and the restrictions that both local and foreign journalists face while reporting in China, before and during the COVID pandemic. Working toward CPJ's mission, she gathered information, interviewed sources, and advocated for justice and public awareness on behalf of those imprisoned journalists.
Grace Moon is a global audience editor at the Washington Post’s Seoul hub in South Korea, where they produce domestic and international breaking news stories, and live coverage of major events around the world. Moon also serves as the Co-Vice President of the Asia American Journalists Association Seoul and the Co-Director of the Asian American Journalists Association’s young professionals’ affinity group, which mentors students and early-career journalists. During the pandemic, Moon worked as a multimedia freelancer and Korea correspondent for Reporters without Brooders. Her work appeared in places like the BBC Worklife, NBC News, Nikkei Asia, The New York Times Video, VICE News, Public Radio International, The Wall Street Journal, and The South China Morning Post, among others.
Moon, a Korean American journalist, took off her freelance career during the pandemic. She arrived in Seoul, South Korea for a research fellowship right before the outbreak and decided to stay. With no community or formal employment, Moon managed to cover breaking news and human interest stories for domestic and international media outlets despite taking health and security risks. Her story exemplified the transformation of a young journalist who survived and thrived with minimal resources amidst a global health crisis. This interview revealed the behind-the-scene process of her reporting and demonstrated the efforts and courage it takes a journalist to deliver the news. She reviewed the ground situation in Seoul in the early months of the pandemic, commented on the challenges facing a female journalist in South Korea, and encouraged more mentorship and peer support to younger generations of journalists.
Frankie Huang from the United States is a freelance writer, editor, strategist, and illustrator. She writes about culture and food, and she is interested in intersectional feminism, diaspora Asian American identity, social justice, storytelling, the hybrid of translation and creation, and beauty in all its forms. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and 1843 Magazine, among many others.
Huang published a few opinion pieces based on her experience in Shanghai in the early days of the pandemic and then returning to the U.S. In this interview, she recalled her journey in journalism and the challenges of writing about COVID in China and the U.S. Job security, racism, sexism, inequality, work-life balance, and the clashes between cultures, are just a few challenges that she highlighted in this conversation.
Emily Sohn, based in the U.S., is a freelance journalist with 20 years of experience. She explores issues in science, health, and the environment. Her work has been published in Nature, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Discovery News, Science News for Kids, U.S. News & World Report, and National Geographic News, among others.
Sohn tried to explain the science of COVID guidance and the pandemic's psychological and behavioral impacts on children and adults. She reminded the public that science is an evolving process, and journalism plays an important role in analyzing, documenting, and conveying evidence-based information to the public as soon as it becomes available. She also touched on the fast-paced news cycle, work and life dilemmas, and challenges facing freelance journalists during the pandemic.
Elizia Volkmann is a British freelance journalist, photographer, and videographer with more than 20 years of experience. Based in Tunisia, Volkmann covers international trade, geo-political economics, and humanitarian issues in the Maghreb and Euro-med regions and North Africa. Her work has been published in the Times, Al-Jazeera, Euro News, the BBC, and AI Monitor, among others. During COVID, Volkmann covered the impact of the pandemic for both Arab-focused English language press and business publications.
In this interview, Volkmann recounted in vivid detail her experiences surviving COVID and enduring Long COVID symptoms while covering politics and the pandemic impact. She lost significant work and income, received no institutional support, and struggled with maintaining mental health and physical health during the pandemic. She commented on the dilemma of being a foreign correspondent stuck overseas. She also recalled incidents of sexism against women in society and harassment against women journalists in the workplace. She called for more organized support to freelancers and to build community connections and mental and physical strengths.
Elizabeth Fitt is a freelance photographer based out of Beirut, Lebanon. Her work has been published with various media outlets including the Guardian, the Sunday Times, Forbes, Foreign Policy, the Telegraph, CNN, ABC Australia, The National, Middle East Eye, The New Humanitarian, The New York Post, and the New Scientist. She also writes on environmental issues for Mongabay.
In this interview, Fitt recalled the ground situation in Lebanon and the extreme caution and effort it took her to photograph vulnerable communities during lockdowns. Her projects depicted the overwhelming and devastating scenes in the ICU Wards, the food distribution among the underprivileged communities in the south of Lebanon, and other high-profile events. She also recalled the extraordinary experience of photographing a wedding ceremony out of town during a total lockdown. She also commented on local public attitudes toward journalists, collegial relationships, and challenges facing women journalists in this area. She ended the interview with uplifting advice to future generations of journalists.
Elettra Fiumi is an award-winning film director, producer, and editor making independent documentary films. Fiumi’s documentaries explore themes of discovery, innovation, and a sense of place. She’s told stories of people, brands, and places across nations and industries, including in technology, adventure travel, fashion, art, architecture, and education. Fiumi’s past films have been featured in the BBC, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, NBC News Digital, MSNBC, Univision and others. She launched and leads Fiumi Studios, a full-service production and online content strategy company, and worked on content for Netflix, Airbnb, WhatsApp, and Amazon Prime, among many others. Fiumi also teaches filmmaking at Franklin University in Switzerland.
Fiumi, a freelance documentary filmmaker who has strong family and professional ties in Italy and the U.S. Relocated to Switzerland right before the outbreak of COVID, Fiumi had to innovate her filming approach when in-person interviews and filming were impossible during lockdowns. She compiled crowdsourcing from residents and curated the eyewitness footage and storytelling from a few photojournalists remotely to document the frontline impact of COVID-19 in Italy, which won the attention of a global audience and 17 international awards. In this interview, she revealed the behind-the-scene coordination of those productions, challenges for filmmakers, and gender stereotypes in the filming industry. She left some encouraging remarks to future generations.
Denise Hruby from Vienna, Austria, is an award-winning journalist, writer, and National Geographic Explorer focusing on the climate and biodiversity crises and politics. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, The Washington Post, and CNN, among many others. She has won multiple international awards for environmental reporting and feature writing and numerous fellowships and grants. Throughout her career, Denise has reported from more than 25 countries, including the war in Ukraine, terror attacks in Austria, and conflicts in South Sudan among many other national and international events. Before relocating to Vienna in 2018, Denise worked in China and Southeast Asia as a reporter, editor, and newsroom manager for almost a decade.
In this interview, Hruby recalled the public reactions, the ground situation, and the reporting of the pandemic in Vienna, Austria. She contracted the virus early on and lost most of her freelance work due to travel restrictions. She switched from writing feature stories about the environment and climate change to covering breaking news on coronavirus and government responses. Besides enduring many hardships as a freelancer, she is concerned about the shifting public perception of the media after the pandemic and the deteriorating public trust in journalism in Austria.
Danielle Keeton-Olsen is a freelance journalist who explores issues in business, human rights, healthcare, and environmental subjects in Cambodia. She has been stationed in Cambodia since 2017. Her work has been published in Forbes, the BBC, South China Morning Post, VOD English, Al Jazeera, and HuffPost, among others.
In this interview, Keeton-Olsen recalled the ground situation in January 2020 and the COVID impact on local communities and businesses in Cambodia. She reviewed her journey of becoming a foreign correspondent. She commented on the business model of Cambodian media, the media environment, government control of media, media relationship with the general public, challenges, and opportunities as a freelancer in Cambodia. She also commented on the status of women, particularly women journalists in this society. She attributed her success to many role models and predecessors before her time and called for more public attention to and appreciation of reporting undercovered regions in South Asia.
Christine Ro, a freelance journalist based in London, the United Kingdom, covers subjects on international development, social justice, environmentalism, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in Nature, BBC, Forbes, and The New York Times, among others.
In this interview, Ro recalled her experiences reporting COVID. She used a solution-based and data-driven approach that relied heavily on scientific research findings to inform the public of policymaking and the impact of COVID-19. She shared the strategies and challenges of reporting subjects and contacting on-the-ground sources remotely in other countries during the pandemic. She also noted gender disparity in family care and the importance of including women's perspectives in journalistic reporting. Last, she commented on the positives and limitations of societal responses to the pandemic.
Caroline Harrap is a freelance journalist based in Paris, France, writing about French culture, travel, and environmental issues. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, France Today, and Euro News among others. She is also a co-founder of the Society of Freelance Journalists.
When traveling was restricted, Harrap, a freelancer who used to write about travel, had to shift her gear to cover the lockdowns, human interest stories, and personal experiences and insights of the pandemic in Paris for foreign media outlets who couldn't send reporters in. She reflected on the pros and cons of sharing personal experiences and insights with the public, including handling public criticisms and dealing with gender stereotypes and harassment. Seeing the challenges facing many freelancers, she co-founded the Society of Freelance Journalists, a network of peer support that has attracted over 2500 members worldwide.
Bukola Adebayo is an investigative journalist with over a decade of experience reporting health, science, politics, and education in Africa. She is now the West Africa correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation (Nov. 2022 to now) covering human rights and issues around abuse and exploitation of everyday people in the big economy, environment, and tech space. During COVID, Bukola was the senior producer at the CNN Digital Bureau in Nigeria (Jan 2018- Aug 2021), where she covered many topics, including, human rights, women’s rights, social injustice, political uprisings, and the environment.
In this interview, Adebayo recalled her experience of covering the impact of COVID across Africa as the senior producer at the CNN Digital Bureau in Nigeria. She reflected on navigating the transition to remote working, balancing work and life, coping with public distrust and criticism, and the unique contributions of women journalists. COVID has changed work relationships, work culture, and work routines, and provided more flexibility and safety to her. She also commented on the gender disparity in the newsroom, what it was like to work as a woman journalist in Nigeria, and made recommendations to future generations.
Biena Magbitang is an award-winning journalist from the Philippines. She has extensive experience reporting climate change, energy policies, and foreign relations in Southeast Asia. She currently serves as the Asia Regional Director for Climate Tracker, where she mentors journalists, reports on high-level summits, and moderates roundtable discussions. She has worked for ABS-CBN Corporation as the head of a digital news channel, production unit manager, and producer for over 10 years. During COVID-19, Ms. Magbitang was in charge of News Production, Management, and Strategy at ABS-CBN and produced numerous broadcast specials on the topic as TV News Executive Producer.
Magbitang was the executive producer for a flagship evening newscast at a local broadcasting station during the pandemic in the Philippines. She recalled the early chaos and uncertainties of reporting COVID news and preparing for lockdowns. The station transitioned to COVID-centric coverage, went through revenue loss and layoff, and eventually was shut down by the government. Magbitang reviewed her experience from a journalist and a station manager's perspective, commenting on the differential impact of COVID on her colleagues. Heavy workload, loss of employment, and surviving COVID added multiple layers of stress to her colleagues and worsened their mental health. She advised the future generation of journalists to recognize the role of the press in society and advocate for gender equality and more attention to mental health.
Beimeng Fu is an award-winning video journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Shanghai, China. She has covered stories out of the Greater China Area, the U.S. and its Asian diasporas, and East Africa. Her bylines have appeared in The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, The California Sunday Magazine, ABC News, Quartz, South China Morning Post, Sixth Tone, Tencent Guyu Project, and more. During COVID, she recorded the collective mood of people who experienced the two-month-long lockdown in Shanghai in the Spring of 2022. The documentary, “Thank You For Your Cooperation,” was named a finalist in the 2023 Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA).
In this interview, Fu recalled the ground situation in China where COVID was discovered first. She covered the pandemic news and its impact on migrant workers, residents in Wuhan, education, and rural parts and frontier cities of China. She endured a two-month total lockdown in her apartment in Shanghai while producing two video projects about these lockdowns from home. She also commented on the difficulties of producing video and documentary projects in a highly censored media environment when mobility was tracked and restricted by the government.
April Zhu is a freelance journalist based in Kenya. Her work focuses on gender, urban inequality, and the Chinese diaspora in Kenya. She is a senior editor at Guernica Magazine where she edits interviews and produces a podcast “Until Everyone is Free”. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books Daily, Foreign Policy, The Baffler Magazine, The South China Morning Post Magazine, VOA News, and others.
Zhu's COVID reporting helped people understand the systematic issues in the healthcare system in Africa. She recalled the early lockdowns in Kenya, government responses, and police violence. She criticized Sinophobia and racial discrimination and commented on the financial challenges and lack of institutional support for being a freelancer. Regardless, she's grateful for growing professionally during the pandemic. She urges the future generation to connect their crisis reporting with structural issues and make an impactful change.
Ankita M. Kumar is a journalist, analyst, and product manager. During COVID, she covered several high-profile investigative stories on the pandemic in India for Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster. In 2020, she received a grant from the National Geographic Society's COVID-19 emergency fund to complete a written report on equal access to health care for women in the current Gurugram's urban slums. Kumar was relocated to the United States in 2021, and graduated with a master's degree from Northwestern University, specializing in media innovation and content strategy.
Kumar published several investigative stories that focused on underrepresented groups during the pandemic, including women in Gurugram's slums, cremation urns workers, migrant workers, and diamond polishers. In this interview, she revealed the unique challenges from family, community, and sources she endured to practice journalism as a woman in India. A journalist and a social worker, Kumar advised spending time building a trustworthy relationship with sources and maintaining objectivity in one's journalistic pursuit. She reviewed the difficulties of covering COVID at its peak while enduring the loss of a family member to the virus. The personal loss put her in a unique position to tell other people's suffering with compassion and empathy. She left future generations with lessons of loss and gains.
Amanda Morris is a staff reporter at the Washington Post in the United States. Before joining the Post in August 2022, Morris was an inaugural disability reporting fellow for The New York Times. Previously, she covered science, politics, and national news for outlets, including The Arizona Republic, The Associated Press, and National Public Radio (NPR).
In this interview Morris shared her experiences covering the early months of the pandemic for The Arizona Republic. She recalled challenges such as performing field work as a visual journalist, maintaining work and work-life balance, mental health, and combating public distrust in science reporting and online harassment. She recommended practical tips for organizations and the general public to recognize women journalists' challenges and contributions in reporting the pandemic.
Aliya Bashir is an independent journalist covering India and India-administered Kashmir with a focus on human rights, gender justice, women’s issues, the environment, healthcare, education and minorities. Her work has been published in The Guardian, Time, Reuters, Global Press Journal, Global Health Now, and The New Humanitarian among many others. She is the winner of the 2015 Schizophrenia Research Foundation-Press Institute of India “Media for Mental Health” award for best reporting on mental health issues in India. A HEFAT trainee, she has won reporting grants from the International Women’s Media Foundation and Population Reference Bureau.
In this interview, Bashir recalled her experiences covering the impact of COVID-19 on women and their children. She reflected on the lack of women's representation in mainstream media, vaccination and health data, and the decision-making process in families. Despite the challenges of reaching sources in remote and vulnerable conditions and with little support as a freelance journalist, her reporting brought awareness to the gender gap and urged officials to collect data and build women-centric vaccination campaigns. She also commended more recognition of women journalists' work and minimizing the pay disparity between genders.
Alessandra Bergamin is an award-winning Australian investigative journalist who divides her time between Melbourne and Los Angeles. Bergamin covers the intersection of environmental conflict and human rights around the world. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, In These Times, Harper’s Magazine, National Geographic, and The New Yorker.com, among others. In 2022, Bergamin was honored as a Distinguished Journalist by the Society of Professional Journalists, Los Angeles in the newspaper/print (smaller circulation) category. She has received fellowships and grants from many entities to investigate environmental and human rights issues.
In this interview, Bergamin reviewed her experiences and takeaways from reporting labor and human trafficking issues during the pandemic. She shared approaches and advice to developing and cultivating sources who reside remotely and in hard-to-reach communities. She also commented on the importance of mental health and the challenges of being a freelancer and woman journalist. Finally, she reflected on the meaning of the pandemic to her personally and professionally. She called for more understanding of the differential impact of the pandemic on different populations.
Chuck Coleman is a former Eastern Michigan University student activist. Before exiting the university in 1978, Coleman was a member of the Black Student Association, Campus Service Corps, and a student representative of the Office of Minority Affairs. Coleman played an important role for bettering conditions for students of color on campus.
On December 15, 2021, Jones talked with former EMU Director of University Publications and Student Media, and YCFE co-chair, Paul Heaton. Heaton arrived in Ypsilanti to work in media and communications at EMU, and remained somewhat on the outside of Ypsi civic life until the Tri-Pride incident in 1997. He became involved with the ordinance efforts early on, attending the first Citizens for Community meetings, and later became a co-chair of YCFE. Heaton worked in tandem with his community members and co-chair Beth Bashert to ensure the campaign would be successful. He was highly regarded for his expertise with communications and messaging, and is still credited with keeping the mission on task. Heaton had to manage the messages and ideas coming from his fellow organizers while also making sure the campaign's focus remained clear and cohesive. Throughout this interview he recalls the reasoning behind YCFE and how its mission worked, along with the ins and outs of working with conflicting opinions, and how he became involved with the campaigns in the first place!
On February 27, 2022, Jones met with EMU alum and former chair-person of Tri-Pride, Kathy Palmer. Palmer found herself at EMU after learning more about the Master's in Social Work program and comparing it to others she was considering. She took up a graduate assistantship from Kathleen Russell, and was eventually picked to serve as a Tri-Pride co-chair. Palmer was only directly involved with the ordinance effort for a short time, as the Tri-Pride complaint was filed in February, and she graduated in April. Despite this, she kept close ties to the community and stayed updated throughout it all, and her "outsider" perspective gave her a new awareness of the campaigns' impact. In this interview, Palmer describes that new awareness and appreciation and shares more of the values and beliefs behind Tri-Pride and its members.
On January 17, 2022, Jones sat down with Citizens for Community member and activist, Bonnie Dawn Clark. Before she moved to Ypsilanti in the mid-1990s, Bonnie was living in the South, always close to where she had been born and raised in North Carolina. With a passion for social justice and activism, she took part in movements advocating for equality for women and LGBTQ people, and even participated in environmental protests. It was only natural for her to become involved with Citizens for Community once the group heard about the incident with EMU group, Tri-Pride. As the city council took on the complaint and pushed it to the Human Relations Commissions hearings, she realized she could use her religious upbringing and knowledge of the Bible to dispel some of the opposing arguments. After the campaign ended, she returned to North Carolina where she has since started a non-profit organization for homeless LGBTQ youth. During this interview, she shares her experiences with being LGBTQ and a woman in the military, and reflects on the importance of an ordinance like 1279.
On January 18, 2022, Jones talked to community organizer and American Friends Service Committee staff member, Jan Wright. After she became a Quaker in graduate school, Wright spent some time living with fellow Quakers in Ann Arbor, and volunteering for the American Friends Service Committee. She eventually became the local AFSC's LGBT Issues Program Director. Wright and her AFSC colleagues hosted community workshops where people could learn to hold non-hostile communication with LGBT/opposing groups. As both ordinance campaigns utilized the workshops, Wright became more entwined in the cause, and found it necessary to support it. Her work with other community members, activists, and organizers left her with meaningful connections, which she reflects on in this interview. Wright also covers the importance of including the Black community in the ordinance, and working closely with religious groups to increase visibility and support through it all.
On January 27, 2022, Jones met with former members of Citizens for Community and Ypsilanti Campaign for Equality, and former EMU faculty, Myrna Yeakle and Joan Sheard. Yeakle and Sheard were both professors in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, and had met while working together. During their careers at EMU, they became trusted members of the community amongst their fellow LGBT colleagues, including Kathleen Russell. Yeakle and Sheard hit the ground running once they found out about the Tri-Pride incident, and met with neighbors and community organizers to push for an ordinance. Because of their experiences with hate and discrimination, and their status as an established "out" couple, they felt they had a responsibility to support the efforts to make the Ypsi community a more welcoming and safe space. Like other participants in this project, Yeakle and Sheard became important figures during the campaigns, working as Outreach officers within YCFE. In this interview, they shared their experiences as LGBT faculty on EMU's campus and how that translated to the Ypsi community, how important it was for the ordinance to be passed, and the broader implications of it all.
On January 25, 2022, Jones talked to EMU alum and former student secretary of Tri-Pride, Eric Monat. Monat, one of the group's founders, worked on promoting and programming events like Visibility Week, and eventually spoke at the Queer Student Leadership Summit. During the ordinance campaigns, he attended human relations commission hearings, and like his fellow students, kept Tri-Pride visible throughout. Monat recalls the camaraderie and support among the students and how they kept each other safe and sane in the midst of hatred. Throughout this interview, he talks through the trauma of the hearings, some of the ins-and-outs of Tri-Pride, and how he saw the campus evolve after all was said and done.
On January 20th, 2022, Jones met with activist, creative, and mother, Dawn Richberg. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richberg moved all across the country with her family before making her way to Ann Arbor in the 1980s. While attending graduate school at University of Michigan, she got involved with the American Friends Service Committee's LGBT Issues Program, which led to her participation in the ordinance campaigns. Richberg's experiences as a Black lesbian meant she brought an important perspective to the campaigns that was needed to help bridge the gap between Black communities and queer communities in Ypsi. In this interview, she shares those personal experiences, her work with the AFSC, and her passion for social justice. Richberg also reflects on the process of making change in the community.
On March 8, 2022, Jones interviewed EMU alum, former Tri-Pride co-chair, and outspoken supporter of the ordinance, Donna Regan-Southwick. Before she made her way to Eastern, Southwick was a mother and activist working with Noel Keane in the early days of surrogacy. She enrolled at EMU as a non-traditional student, earning both her bachelors and masters degrees here. During her time in the MSW program, Southwick joined her classmates in the formation of Tri-Pride, where she acted as co-chair. After the group was denied service, she became an outspoken proponent of the ordinance and helped further bridge the gap between student and community campaign perspectives. Southwick had to balance activism and academics, all while raising a son, who witnessed the fight alongside her. In this interview, she sheds light on finding that balance, understanding grief, and finding the strength to stand up for what's right.
On January 3, 2022, Jones talked to community organizer, activist, and member of Ypsilanti Campaign for Equality, Lisa Zuber. Zuber had close ties to the ordinance early on thanks to her work with PFLAG in Ann Arbor, which granted her the opportunity to speak at the very first council meeting. She became an important figure in the ordinance campaigns from there, eventually taking on the role of volunteer coordinator in YCFE. Zuber worked tirelessly alongside her fellow community members and organizers, and ensured that all the canvassing and cold-calling ran smoothly. During the course of the campaigns, she formed a relationship with former city council-member John Gawlas, and they married on the anniversary of the ordinance's defense. In this interview, Zuber describes the level of coordination and work it took to successfully organize volunteers for the campaigns, the highs and lows of the movement, and how she's seen Ypsi change since then.
On June 6th, 2022, Jones sat down with EMU alum and former Tri-Pride member, Donna Benke. Benke found her way to Eastern in the 1990s, looking to obtain degrees in social work. Noticing the absence of a student org dedicated to LGBTQ students in the Masters in Social Work program, she joined her fellow students in founding Tri-Pride. Later, after the group was denied service by the print shop in 1997 and the incident made its way to the city council, Benke became one of the first students to speak up at the Human Relations Commission Hearings. She continued to be an active presence in Tri-Pride throughout the ordinance campaigns and up until her graduation from EMU in 1998. In this interview, she recounts how her academic and personal backgrounds impacted the way she navigated the campaigns, how the Tri-Pride students supported each other, and the lessons she took with her afterwards.
On December 23, 2021, Jones sat down with former Ypsilanti mayor, Dr. Cheryl Farmer. After moving to Ypsi to complete her residency and learning about the disconnect between city councils and residents, Farmer joined efforts to rewrite the city's charter. In 1995, she became Ypsi's mayor, and until her leave in 2006 she pushed for changes in Ypsi's infrastructure, and fostered a greater sense of trust between Ypsi residents and the government. One of the most memorable and noteworthy acts of her mayor-ship is the creation and passage of Ordinance 1279-deeply entwined in the process, she drafted the committee and eventually signed 1279 into law. During this interview, Farmer sheds light on the ways her upbringing impacted her values as mayor, the workings of local government in contentious times, and all the ways change can happen when communities come together.
On February 15, 2022, Jones talked with Ypsilanti City Attorney, John Barr. Barr, who still serves as City Attorney, was involved with the ordinance efforts from its early stages. With his background and position in the city, he was one of the experts chosen to help draft a nondiscrimination ordinance, which was defended in 1998 and then in 2002. Barr worked closely with city council members on the draft, deciding on what language to use, what sorts of constraints, and even what sorts of repercussions would be part of the ordinance. His knowledge of what successful ordinances looked like helped ensure that this one would succeed too. In this interview, Barr goes over the process of drafting an ordinance like this, how city councils function and change over time, and puts the whole effort in a greater context.
On February 3, 2022, Jones talked to former Ypsilanti city council-member and participant in the ordinance efforts, John Gawlas. Since he was a council-member at the time that Tri-Pride's complaint was filed, Gawlas became quickly familiar with the campaigns. His position with the city put him in a place where he worked alongside fellow council-members, as well as the activists pushing for the ordinance. After the Human Relations Commission became involved, Gawlas was appointed as a member of the sub-committee tasked with drafting the ordinance proposal. During the initial passage and subsequent defense, he formed a close relationship with Lisa Zuber, former co-chair of Ypsi Campaign for Equality and another participant in this project. The couple eventually got engaged, and held their wedding on the anniversary of the ordinance's successful defense! In this interview, Gawlas recalls his fellow city council-members, the ordinance process, and how he's seen his own neighborhood here change since then.
On January 29th, 2022, Jones talked to community organizer, activist, and former Ypsilanti mayor Beth Bashert about her involvement with the passage of the ordinance. Member of Citizens for Community and co-chair of the Ypsi Campaign for Equality, Bashert was a fierce leader, working with other community members to keep the movement going strong. From mediating meetings, to contacting human rights groups across the country, to trying to stay afloat amidst it all, she worked tirelessly for the campaigns. She also recognized the importance of distinguishing between political campaigns and "hearts and minds" campaigns: To not to try to change opposing minds, but to get allies to vote in favor of the ordinance. Bashert and her co-chair Paul Heaton worked in tandem to keep the campaign's message clear, and to make sure everyone understood where it came from and where it was going. In this interview, she talks about what made the campaign work, the internal and external support they received, and how she's seen Ypsi change since 1279 was passed.
On February 23 and March 2 of 2022, Jones talked with long time Ypsilantian, community organizer and activist, and member of Campaign for Equality and Citizens for Community, Lisa Marshall Bashert. When she moved to the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas, Bashert found herself laying activist roots and finding acceptance despite her conservative religious upbringing. She volunteered with LGMPO, where she became close friends with Ayron Smith-Douglas, and got to know Jim Toy. Bashert participated in things like Take Back the Night marches at U of M, and the Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project. When the ordinance campaigns kicked off, she and her wife, Beth Bashert, became involved right from the start after experiencing discrimination in Ypsilanti themselves. From there, Bashert dedicated her time to supporting her community, forming close relationships with other members of C4C and YCFE, and organizing some of the earliest LGBTQ events in Ypsi. She became deeply entangled within the efforts, and recalls just how difficult it was to process things like the city council hearings and homophobia. In this interview, Bashert shares some of the ways that campaign members would try to process those feelings and how they supported each other. She also dives into some of the culture and community building programs she helped organize during the ordinance efforts, how her social world was shifting and changing, and how she's seen Ypsi's sense of community evolve.
On January 27, 2022, Jones talked to third-generation Ypsilantian and member of both Campaign for Equality and Citizens for Community, Brandt Waldenmyer. In this interview, Waldenmyer talks about growing up in Ypsilanti and the deep familiarity he had with the city's cultural atmosphere. LGBTQ visibility in Ypsi was limited until the ordinance effort kicked up and brought more light to the community. Waldenmyer was involved with both of the campaigns from day one: He attended every meeting he could, canvassed and stuffed envelopes, and handled many of the administrative tasks. He recalls being able to use his established Ypsi connections to help the campaign's message carry some more weight, and the massive effort it took many people to come out publicly. Waldenmyer's participation in not only the 1997 and 1998 campaigns, but also the second defense in 2002 means that he has been able to provide a comprehensive timeline of 1279's impact on the community.
On January 12, 2022, Jones talked with attorney, community leader, organizer, and former president of the Willow Run NAACP, Ray Mullins. Under Mullins' leadership, the Willow Run chapter of the NAACP increased its membership, established and developed community youth programs, and won several awards for programming excellence. During the ordinance campaigns, Mullins stood with the organizers in Citizens for Community and Ypsilanti Campaign for Equality, giving them a much-needed and most-important endorsement. Despite receiving backlash from some community members, he remained firm in his alignment, and stayed true to his belief that discrimination is wrong in all its forms. Mullins continued to provide safe spaces and opportunities for Ypsi's youth, and worked closely with churches to maintain strong community relationships throughout the ordinance campaigns and beyond. In this interview, he talks about his upbringing and connections to the Civil Rights Movement, the importance of community care and protection, and of nurturing under-represented youth. Mullins continued to be a beloved cornerstone of the community, representing compassion and integrity until he passed in 2023.
On March 21, 2022, Jones talked to outspoken activist, community organizer, and participant in the ordinance campaigns, Charles Duty. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Duty found himself in Ypsilanti in the 1980s, when life was becoming more and more expensive in his hometown. At an early age he was taught what discrimination is, and why it is wrong, and he continued to carry those lessons into adulthood. In Ypsi, Duty became familiar with local organizations and city officials, working with them to change the quality of life for everyone. After hearing about the print shop incident, he took the initiative to become an outspoken and highly-visible advocate for the ordinance campaigns, learning how to keep marching and living authentically. In this interview, Duty shares some of the finer details of LGBTQ life in Ypsi before and after the ordinance, expands on his connections to political figures and groups, his passion for justice, and reiterates the importance of standing up for oneself and others.
On December 13, 2021, Jones met with long time Ypsilantian, figure-skating coach, and community activist, Gary Clark. Clark became involved with the ordinance efforts very early on, when his partner encountered protestors in Depot Town after Tri-Pride was denied service. From there, they called up their friends, neighbors, and fellow community members and held what would become the first Citizens for Community (C4C) meeting. C4C became the group that took on the fight for the first campaign and initial ordinance passage. With Clark's leadership, community ties, and strong sense-of-self, the campaign was able to effectively advocate for an ordinance and bring more visibility to the LGBT community in Ypsi. He understood the importance of bringing in other communities to support the effort, and even visited the very same churches who strongly opposed the campaigns. In this interview, Clark shares a more in-depth look at C4C's work, the initial drafting of the ordinance, and the shift towards Ypsi Campaign for Equality for the defense.
On June 9, 2022, Jones met with longtime University of Michigan faculty member, Director of the Bentley Historical Library, and former Ypsilanti mayor pro-tem, Terrence McDonald. McDonald began his career in Ypsilanti politics by volunteering for Pete Murdock, during which his wife worked on the city council. After McDonald's wife convinced him to run for council in the next election he launched a campaign, and was eventually appointed in 1994. He got to know a lot about civic life in Ypsi, and recalls how Depot Town businesses and community members interacted before the ordinance efforts kicked off. Of course during his career in office, McDonald became involved in the efforts and collaborated with, managed, and listened to different communities in the city so that everything might go more smoothly. In this interview he gives in-depth detail at how a new city charter impacted the way council functioned and how that played into the passage of 1279, and how much goes in to working with council-members and their constituents efficiently.
On February 10, 2022, Jones sat down with member of Citizens for Community and Campaign for Equality, Brian Baum. Hailing from Livonia MI, Baum spent time in Ann Arbor for school before he came over to Ypsilanti to live with his partner, Holly Ferrise. Only a short while after his move, the print shop incident occurred in 1997, prompting the ordinance campaigns. After finding out more about the campaign during the Human Relations Commission hearings, Baum and Ferrise decided they needed to show up to see where they could help. New to activism and social justice movements, Baum worked with C4C and YCFE to handle administrative tasks and help keep the group on task. In addition to giving time to Ypsi's campaigns, he also worked with the GLSEN Conference in Ann Arbor, all while planning a wedding! During this interview, Baum narrates some of the daily goings-on of the campaigns, explores what his role in all this meant, and shares the messages he took with him afterwards.
On July 28th, 1998, after the long battle for the non-discrimination ordinance had found its end, Ayron Smith-Douglas sent out a letter she had written to her activist colleagues. She expresses that despite the "win," she still feels sadness. Smith-Douglas shares her fears that COST could still win, that homophobia and hate could still undo all the work they had done. She talks about the burn-out and fatigue that comes along with a movement like this one, while emphasizing the need to continue to be visible. At the end of her letter, Smith-Douglas shares the conclusions she came to after her reflection on the ordinance campaign, and hopes her words bring comfort to her friends.
On January 26th, 2022, Jones talked to long time Ypsilantian and community activist, Ayron Smith-Douglas, about her involvement with the passage of the ordinance. Smith-Douglas spent much of the 1960s and 1970s living in Chicago and Detroit, two cities that became central hubs for social justice activism and change. During this time she was able to gain experience as an activist, which she carried with her when she settled in Ypsilanti in 1987. Those experiences continued to be useful as she joined the ordinance movement in 1997, just two years after the loss of her partner, Billie. Smith-Douglas played an important role, working closely with the American Friends Service Committee to bring some de-escalation techniques into the campaign, and providing emotional support to her fellow activists and friends. In 1998 after the successful defense and passage of the ordinance, she wrote a letter to the community in which she reflected on the long battle, sharing her fears and hopes for the future. Smith-Douglas also speaks on the potential for burnout and fatigue and the importance of moving forward and healing.
