PROFESSOR

Diane Winston

Knight Chair in Media and Religion

Diane Winston holds the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. A national authority on religion and the media, her expertise includes religion, politics and the news media as well as religion and the entertainment media. A journalist and a scholar, Winston's current research interests are media coverage of Islam, religion and new media, and the place of religion in American identity.

TEAM MEMBERS

Alexandra Babiarz

Public Relations & World Politics

Alexandra Babiarz is an undergraduate senior studying public relations and world politics at the University of Southern California. Alexandra has held positions at non-profit and financial organizations in Chicago and Los Angeles, and her work has appeared on Annenberg’s 24/7 news site, Neon Tommy.

Jerome Campbell

Broadcast and Digital Journalism

Jerome Campbell is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the Huffington Post, South African Broadcasting Company, South African FM, KCET and more. He currently works for the Los Angeles Times as a multimedia journalist. He graduated in 2014 from the University of Southern California with a degree in Broadcast and Digital Journalism.

Graham Clark Stecklein

Cartoonist

Graham Clark is an enterprising journalist, cartoonist and artist who's lived in Los Angeles since 2012. Among the brilliant people to draw him into tho world of critical thinking and constructive human interaction are Maria Vesperi of St. Petersburg, Florida, and a stable of colleagues and mentors from the Digital Journalism Master's program at USC. He enjoys an array of non-fictional pursuits including anthropology, documentary and history—primarily concerning on the politics of American wartime media—while otherwise attempting to live a beautiful life.

Katherine Davis

Radio

Katherine Davis is a Los Angeles area journalist with a passion for radio news. She received her M.A. in journalism at USC’s Annenberg School where she was the executive producer of Annenberg Radio News. She is also the recipient of the Annenberg Fellowship, the Hal Fishman Memorial Scholarship for brodcast journalism students and the SPJ Mark of Excellence regional award winner for radio news reporting. Her work has appeared on KPCC, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Annenberg Radio News, Intersections South LA, Neon Tommy, and Backstage.

Kaysie Ellingson

Documentary Production

Kaysie Ellingson worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan before entering graduate school at USC Annenberg. Her focus in school was documentary production. Throughout her two years at USC she worked for USC IMPACT as a Senior Producer. She is a co-founder of ClefCity.com. Her work as been published on NeonTommy, Indian Express and KPCC. She is currently working as a freelance videographer and video editor.

Matt Hamilton

Multimedia Journalism

Matt Hamilton is multimedia reporter based in Los Angeles. His work has been published by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Religion News Service, Los Angeles Magazine, Monocle, and The National. He studied theological ethics at Boston College and is completing in M.A. in journalism at the University of Southern California. Before pursuing journalism, he volunteered as a refugee aid worker and edited lifestyle magazines in Amman, Jordan.

Grace Lim

Documentary

Grace's passion for journalism sparked while she studied Chinese and worked for a non-profit mission group in Beijing. On her return to the States, she earned a certificate in recording engineering from Musicians Institute in Hollywood and became a Protools Certified Operator. Grace's past works include internships at Morning View Studios, Films of Record (a London-based documentary production company), and freelance journalism. She was the Supervising Producer of USC's Impact, a student-produced documentary show. You can follow Grace on Twitter @gylim, or on her website at www.grace-lim.com.

Heather McIlvaine

Print Journalism

Heather McIlvaine was an Annenberg Graduate Fellow at the University of Southern California, where she earned her Master’s degree in Specialized Journalism with a focus on globalization and gender issues. Previously, she lived and worked in Germany for four years as the English editor of a tech blog. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, GlobalPost and KPCC.

Rosalie Murphy

Print and Digital Journalism

Rosalie Murphy received a Pulitzer Center Fellowship for her work in J585. She currently writes about earth science at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and her writing has appeared on GlobalPost, OnBeing, KPCC and NBC Los Angeles. She earned her B.A. in Print and Digital Journalism from USC Annenberg in 2014.

Chhaya Nene

Broadcast and Multimedia Journalism

Chhaya Nene first got involved in journalism at the age of 8 years old and has never looked back. Nene earned her Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Miami and then continued to pursue a Master's degree in Multimedia Journalism from USC Annenberg. Nene was the valedictorian of her program and currently interns for NBC Los Angeles in the Investigative Unit. She has articles/photography published on The Washington Post, Religious News Service,The Global Post, NBCLosAngeles.com, and CBSnews.com just to name a few.

Brianna Sacks

Print and Digital Journalism

Brianna Sacks is a business reporter for the LA Times and the third recipient of the Carlson-Gerdts fellowship. She earned a master's in audio storytelling and print journalism from USC Annenberg, and was the editor-in-chief for USC's digital news site, Neon Tommy. She specializes in education and photography, and was the resident education reporter for Annenberg Radio News. Her work has appeared on The Washington Post, L.A. School Report, Global Post, Religion News Service, Killing The Buddha and the Huffington Post

Melissah Yang

Multimedia Journalism

Melissah Yang is a reporter based in Los Angeles. She also freelances as a production assistant at CNN. Her work has appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, KPCC, L.A. Currents, Neon Tommy and ATVN. She received a B.A. in English literature from UCLA and will graduate with an M.A. in journalism from USC.