Meet the Authors

We are in the Columbia Journalism School Class of 2017, studying under Professors Betsy West and Tami Luhby.

Louis Baudoin-Laarman

Louis is a Canadian-French journalist at Columbia University, covers East Harlem, and loves biking.

Emily Churchill

A dual-degree student in Journalism and Religion, Emily Churchill is fascinated with the political and social impact of faith and sees journalism as an excellent avenue for the dissemination of these studies. She is an alumna of the University of Virginia.

Emily Harris

Emily Harris is a journalism student with an interest in documentary film, digital media, and long form narrative writing. She is an alumna of Barnard College and a New Jersey native.

Allana Haynes

Allana Haynes is a journalism student at Columbia University from the Washington, D.C area. She is a self-described “introvert,” who has a love for people and telling their stories.

Elizabeth Haq

Liz Haq is a writer from Toronto, currently covering Hamilton Heights and West Harlem.

Sangsuk Sylvia Kang

Sangsuk Sylvia Kang makes images. She comes from Seoul, South Korea, and hopes to converge journalism and art. She is an alumna of Northwestern University.

Somayeh Malekian

In 2009, after one decade of teaching at state schools around Iran, Somayeh Malekian joined the Washington Post and the New York Times bureaus in Tehran as a translator and correspondent assistant. She is currently a student of journalism at Columbia University, planning to report from the Middle East after graduation.

Nafisa Masud

Nafisa Masud is a Salt Lake native with a B.A. in English, International Relations and Spanish. She’s hoping to explore the stories of women and modern Muslims through feature and long-form narrative journalism.

Summer Meza

Summer Meza is at Columbia after several years of reporting on marijuana law, food, and local news in Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University.

Abigail Morris

Abigail Morris is a journalism student focusing on broadcast and business news. She comes from the UK where she worked in local TV news while completing a journalism degree at the University of Kent.

Thomas Piccolo

Tom is a reporter from Columbia Journalism School covering East Harlem. Prior to journalism, he worked as a management consultant in the financial services industry. In his spare time, he has covered sports for various blogs and media outlets.

Danielle Prager

Danielle Prager is a reporter at Columbia Journalism school. Prior to journalism, she worked in digital marketing  and wrote for various marketing blogs.

Alaina Raftis

After freelancing in fashion magazines and landing a corporate communications job in New York, Pittsburgh native Alaina Raftis realized she wanted to pursue a career in writing for impact and is now a graduate student at Columbia University’s Journalism school.

Bimina Ranjit

Bimina Ranjit is a journalism student with some experience in print, audio, and video. She co-produced, co-directed and wrote a 30-minute independent documentary film, which was featured in a few film festivals.

Yuqing Jessie Shi

Jessie Shi, of Shanghai, China, is a master’s candidate at Columbia Journalism School aspiring to become a multimedia journalist.

Emily Ulbricht

Emily Ulbricht studies journalism at Columbia University and loves radio and storytelling. Before arriving to the US, she worked as a radio reporter for German public radio, covering youth issues in Berlin. Assigned to East Harlem, she is eager to discover the neighborhood, find people’s stories – and tell them.