Maine

Bangor Daily News

A 132-year-old business owned by one family, the Bangor Daily News increasingly serves the entire state with an earlier shift to digital than most midsize papers. This news organization prizes strong journalism that serves readers, and the 127-person team is young, scrappy, and hungry to grow the BDN’s journalism, capacity and public service.
Jules Walkup

Jules Walkup

Jules Walkup covers the midcoast region of Maine for the Bangor Daily News, which includes the coastal area from Brunswick to Rockland. Prior to joining Report for America, Jules received their B.A. in journalism from the University of Georgia in December 2022. With a minor in political science and a certificate in sustainability, Jules is heavily interested in political journalism and climate change reporting, with a focus in solutions journalism. They worked up from a news contributor in 2020 to managing print editor in 2022 for UGA’s independent student newspaper, The Red & Black. They also wrote environmental stories for the rural paper the Oglethorpe Echo, where they received two awards for their photo story about seniors and the changes they’ve seen in their rural community over the years. In summer 2022, Jules interned for CNN’s Ana Cabrera Show as a producer. Jules is passionate about serving the community they’re reporting on with in-depth, character-centered journalism supported with meaningful and impactful photojournalism.

Bangor Daily News

A 132-year-old business owned by one family, the Bangor Daily News increasingly serves the entire state with an earlier shift to digital than most midsize papers. This news organization prizes strong journalism that serves readers, and the 127-person team is young, scrappy, and hungry to grow the BDN’s journalism, capacity and public service.

Mehr Sher

Mehr Sher is working as a statewide environmental reporter for Bangor Daily News in Maine.Sher has always been passionate about telling underreported stories from undercoveredregions. Prior to joining BDN, Sher graduated from Columbia Journalism School with honors forher master’s degree in investigative journalism. During the program, she reported extensivelyon the Afghan refugee resettlement program and investigated the effectiveness of hate crimelegislation in Indiana. Sher began her journalism career abroad in Pakistan,where she was based for over six years. During her career there, she investigated systemicfailure, an inadequate health care system, and a cover up, which led to the exacerbation of anHIV/AIDs outbreak in over a thousand children in Larkana, Sindh. In 2015, she graduated fromNorth Carolina State University with a bachelor’s in international relations. Sher speaks manylanguages – including Pashto, Urdu, intermediate French, basic Korean, and is currentlyindependently learning Farsi. She is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina and is an ethnicPashtun from northwestern Pakistan. Sher appreciates great coffee, music, films, poetry,outdoor activities, and traveling.

Bangor Daily News

A 132-year-old business owned by one family, the Bangor Daily News increasingly serves the entire state with an earlier shift to digital than most midsize papers. This news organization prizes strong journalism that serves readers, and the 127-person team is young, scrappy, and hungry to grow the BDN's journalism, capacity and public service.

Kaitlin Cough

Kate Cough covers energy and the environment for The Maine Monitor, an investigative outlet based in Maine, where she was born and raised. She was previously a reporter and then the digital media strategist for The Ellsworth American, a 150-year-old weekly paper based in Ellsworth, Maine. While there, she won awards from the Maine Press Association and the New England Newspaper Association for her work on where local recycling really winds up, how businesses are coping with the labor shortage, and a local network of white supremacists, among other pieces. Kate graduated with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Magna Cum Laude from Bryn Mawr College, and spent time in medical school before leaving to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.

Andrew Howard

Andrew Howard covers the statehouse for The Maine Monitor in Augusta. He is a graduate of Arizona State University, where he reported on state government as an intern at The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Capitol Times. Howard also served as editor-in-chief of The State Press, the student-run newspaper at ASU. He is the recipient of the Associated Collegiate Press 2019 Story of the Year Award for breaking news and the Arizona Press Club's student-news award for his scoop that Kurt Volker, then U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, had resigned from the Trump State Department. For his honors thesis, Howard studied journalism's role in America's polarization and how a nonprofit business model may decrease media polarization. He grew up in Phoenix.

Ari Snider

Ari Snider reports on Maine's refugee communities for Maine Public, a nonprofit based in Portland with radio, TV, educational and Web services. Snider grew up in Maine, and returns by way of far west Texas, where he hosted Morning Edition at Marfa Public Radio. Before that, Snider was in Southeast Alaska, reporting and hosting at public radio stations KCAW in Sitka and KFSK in Petersburg. He got his start in audio as an undergrad at Brown University and through internships at radio stations in Vermont and Rhode Island. Over the last several years, Snider has covered everything from a labor strike to a ferry-funding crisis to renewable energy initiatives in remote Alaska towns. His reporting has won three Alaska Press Club awards, and has aired on radio stations throughout Alaska, Texas, and New England. When looking to get out of town for a weekend, Snider has a special fondness for the islands of Penobscot Bay and the lakes and mountains of the North Woods.

The Maine Monitor

The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization located in Augusta, Maine. It was founded in 2009 by veteran journalists John Christie and Naomi Schallit to help offset some of the deeper journalism that was quickly evaporating as Maine newspapers slashed staffs. The news organization produces investigative and enterprise journalism on politics, healthcare, the environment and education, and publishes Pine Tree Watch.

The Maine Monitor

The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization located in Augusta, Maine. It was founded in 2009 by veteran journalists John Christie and Naomi Schallit to help offset some of the deeper journalism that was quickly evaporating as Maine newspapers slashed staffs. The news organization produces investigative and enterprise journalism on politics, healthcare, the environment and education, and publishes Pine Tree Watch.