The Midtown Gazette

A Columbia Journalism School newsroom covering Midtown Manhattan in the heart of New York City.


Meet the Reporters 2018

Akintunde Ahmad is a graduate of Yale University, where he studied sociology with a focus on urban environments.  He has been featured on several media outlets, including The Ellen Show, MSNBC with Craig Melvin, Huffington Post, MTV and Black Enterprise, to discuss inequities in public school education in Oakland, California, where he’s originally from. He is an M.S. candidate at Columbia Journalism School, with an emphasis in documentary films. Contact him at aa4245@columbia.edu Test.

 

 

Sophia Ahmadi is an M.S. student at Columbia Journalism School. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2016 with a degree in French and Spanish. Previously, she worked in radio for Monocle 24 in London, before moving to New York. Contact her at scb2190@columbia.edu.

 

 

 

Emaad Akhtar, a British citizen of Pakistani descent, was born and raised in Singapore. He graduated from NYU with a degree in Political Science in 2010. Previously he spent four years as a producer and reporter for Fox Sports Asia in Singapore. He is currently pursuing an M.S. degree at Columbia Journalism School. Contact him at esa2152@columbia.edu.

 

 

 

Brianna DeJesus-Banos is currently an M.S. student at Columbia Journalism School. She has a B.S. in communication from Cornell University, where she was a research assistant in the school’s social media lab. Previously, she interned at the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles and worked in the press office during the Emmy Awards in 2017. She can be reached at bjd2143@columbia.edu, @brianna_banos on Twitter, or @briabanos on Instagram.

 

 

India Duke is an M.S. candidate at Columbia Journalism School, originally from Cleveland, Ohio. She earned a B.S. in multiplatform journalism with a minor in sociology from Bowling Green State University, where she worked as the editor in chief of The Obsidian, a campus publication focused on minority student interests. She can be reached at ijd2110@columbia.edu.

 

 

 

Andrew Karpinski is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where he studied political science and English. He is pursuing an M.S. at Columbia Journalism School with an emphasis on documentary films. His areas of interest include stories that explore intersections of race and culture through sports. He can be reached at ahk2169@columbia.edu and @AndDrewski on Twitter.

 

 

 

Sophie Ladanyi, a New York City native, graduated from Fordham University with a B.A in journalism and minor in history in May 2018. She’s an M.S. candidate at Columbia Journalism School, where her reporting interests include arts and culture, social justice and investigative work. She can be reached at al3174@columbia.edu.

 

 

 

Janet Lie is a Surinamese-Chinese journalist from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and an M.S. candidate at Columbia Journalism School. She studied media studies and documentary production at the University of Amsterdam and CUNY Hunter College. Previously, she wrote for Dutch newspapers NRC Handelsblad and Het Parool, where she covered multiculturalism, gender, art and subcultures. She also made appearances on Dutch television shows AT5 and Pauw & Witteman to discuss diversity and inclusion in western media. She can be reached at jkl2177@columbia.edu.

 

 

Lizzie Mulvey is a journalist and documentary filmmaker, originally from New Jersey. She received her B.A. in sociology from Princeton University and an M.A. in quantitative methods for the social sciences from Columbia University. She previously worked on two short international films in the Gambia and Iraqi Kurdistan, and is currently pursuing an M.S. at Columbia Journalism School with a documentary specialization. She can be reached at em3045@columbia.edu.

 

 

Jess Nelson is a multimedia reporter for the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia Journalism School. She’s from the San Francisco Bay Area and earned a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley in 2012, where she received an undergraduate grant for her thesis research on trench newspapers during WWI. She can be reached at j.nelson@columbia.edu.

 

 

 

Emily Paulin is a journalist from Melbourne, Australia, currently pursuing an M.S at Columbia Journalism School. She received her B.A in media communications and criminology from the University of Melbourne. Over the past three years, she has worked at lifestyle publication Broadsheet in multiple roles including assistant editor, social media editor and audience growth editor. Contact her at emily.paulin@columbia.edu.

 

 

Martin Rather is journalist from New York whose work has been featured on The Rachel Maddow Show and MSNBC.com. Before working in journalism, he was the youngest high school head coach of girls varsity basketball in the state of Texas, leading his team to the East Texas Regional Finals. He studied history at Rice University, where he was named one of seven “Outstanding Seniors” in the Class of 2018. He can be reached at mlr2205@columbia.edu.

 

 

Tamara Saade was born and raised in Lebanon. She graduated from the American University of Beirut, where she learned photography and studied media and communications with an emphasis in journalism. She is an M.S. candidate at Columbia Journalism School and can be reached at t.saade@columbia.edu.

 

 

 

Christina Shaman is a journalist and documentary filmmaker from Queens, N.Y. She is an M.S. candidate at Columbia University and a graduate of Lafayette College, where she studied film and women’s and gender studies. Previously, she was an editor on a feature-length documentary on mass incarceration among women, and a multimedia fellow at the. Find her on Twitter @ChristinaShaman or contact cms2357@columbia.edu.

 

 

Nicole Soviero is a reporter and M.S. candidate at Columbia Journalism School. She graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in American Studies. In May 2018 she earned a Master of Studies in Law from Fordham University School of Law. Previously, she worked in various magazine positions at Lucky, Marie Claire, and Glamour. Contact her at nms2190@columbia.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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