Gabriela Martínez is a Puerto Rican multimedia journalist. She covers the intersection of race and identity in central Pennsylvania with a focus on the Latino community for WITF, a nonprofit multimedia organization in Harrisburg. Previously, she worked as an associate producer at Kentucky Educational Television, producing pieces on health equity in Kentucky’s immigrant communities and the restoration of voting rights to former felons. At the PBS NewsHour, Martínez contributed stories to the digital politics team, and wrote pieces on gun trafficking and cockfighting in Puerto Rico. Fluent in Spanish, English and Russian, she was a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Russia, and holds a master’s degree in multiplatform journalism from the University of Maryland. While there, Martínez and a team of student photojournalists produced a documentary series on opioid addiction in Maryland. It earned multiple honors, including a Best of Festival Award from the Broadcast Education Association.
Beat: Latino issues and communities
This reporter would focus on Latino issues across central Pennsylvania with a particular focus on Reading and Berks County, Pa., which has a large and growing Latino population, but a diminished daily newspaper and a lack of other news organizations serving the area. This beat will explore issues that face the large pockets of Latino populations across central Pennsylvania, helping people in one area learn from the success of those in another, and helping people in one area prepare to face challenges arising in another. This reporter will report on the Latino population's increasing influence in local and state-level politics and what role that will play as we head toward the 2024 election cycle. The beat would feature community engagement and listening, meaning we'll do in-person and virtual engagement to hear from people what issues need to be reported on. We'll do that reporting, connecting it back to the people and communities the idea came from so we can develop relationships, credibility and trust.