About Us

NBTB co-director Beatrice Motamedi gives the morning chalk talk before students head to classes and then afternoon activities.

Our educational philosophy is grounded in the idea that students learn best by doing, and no one knows that better than our faculty and staff, who combine real-world experience with a thorough understanding of journalism fundamentals.

Our faculty are among the best journalism educators in the country. Guest speakers contribute insights and experience from the world of professional journalism and emerging media. Our talented team leaders are available day and night to help students both inside and outside the classroom. Our 1:10 ratio of faculty/staff to students enables us to be attentive to our students’ academic and personal needs.

Program directors

Beatrice Y. Motamedi (co-founder and director) is a teacher, writer and youth media advocate who turns classrooms into newsrooms. She is executive director of Global Student Square, an international student journalism network. Beatrice was a Stegner Fellow in poetry and a John S. Knight Fellow in journalism, both at Stanford. She was also a 2018 fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, developing curriculum in global studies and citizenship. A Dow Jones News Fund Distinguished Adviser and California Journalism Educator of the Year, Beatrice has taught and helped students launch publications in Oakland, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Paris, Seoul and Ha Noi, Vietnam. Her students have won more than 200 awards for their work, including the NSPA Pacemaker, the Wikoff award for editorial leadership and multiple JEA honors for Best in Show, newspaper and magazine writing and digital design.

Before becoming a teacher, Beatrice was a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, United Press International, and WebMD. She also served as associate editor for 24 Hours in Cyberspace, the landmark book on one day in the life of the internet. Beatrice’s work has appeared in Newsweek, Wired, The New York Times, The International Herald-Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times and the Los Angeles Times as well as two literary anthologies. “The Long Arm of Childhood,” a three-part series Beatrice on the impact of stress on teens growing up in East Oakland, is part of the Solutions Journalism Network’s Story Tracker. Beatrice served as senior project editor and curriculum designer for “Since Parkland,” which won the 2019 Global Youth and News Media Prize and the Online News Association’s Pro-Am Student Journalism Award. Contact Beatrice at beatrice@globalstudentsquare.org and beatrice@newsroombythebay.com.

Jordan Tichenor (assistant program director) is a journalism educator based in Eugene, Oregon. Since 2016, he has worked with the Journalistic Learning Initiative to assist teachers in deploying project-based journalism projects in English and social studies classrooms throughout Oregon and California. Through JLI, Jordan has helped support the MINE program at Springfield High School, including the magazines Sonder, and Backcountry Review, which has twice won the Pacemaker Award for Best Specialty/In-Depth Topical Magazine. Previously, Jordan worked on projects such as Rogue Territory, which explored a looming public safety crisis in Southern Oregon, and Not 1 More Acre!, which investigated and challenged the U.S. Army’s use and stewardship of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in Colorado. For Eugene Weekly, Jordan covered topics such as the evolution and response to animal services in Eugene after funding was cut and management was changed, the local county commissioners race, and local events, such as the coronation of the city’s S.L.U.G. Queen. Jordan graduated from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication in 2014, where he won a Hearst award and worked for Pacemaker winners Flux and OR Magazine. As a news editor at the Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon’s student newspaper, Jordan managed the breaking news desk. In addition to his journalism work, Jordan has also worked in design for both print and web. Jordan has worked for Newsroom by the Bay since 2013, where he started as a Y1 team leader.. Contact Jordan at jordan@newsroombythebay.com.

Faculty and staff

Allie Kelly (project editor) is a rising sophomore at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill where she is studying multimedia reporting and neuroscience. Allie is on the University Desk staff for The Daily Tar Heel, and is a style writer for the student-run fashion magazine, Coulture. Allie reported a series of stories on the controversial settlement that gave the North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans possession of a Confederate monument statue, “Silent Sam,” that had been removed from the campus, plus an undisclosed $2.5 million payment from non-state funds. She covered the UNC Faculty Senate response and a legal challenge led by civil rights groups, and she broke the news of an amicus brief submitted to the court by the UNC Black Pioneers. Allie is also a producer for Heel Talk, The Daily Tar Heel podcast. During her senior year of high school, Allie was an assistant project editor for the award-winning “Since Parkland” obituary project published by The Trace and the Miami Herald. She also served as co-editor-in-chief and a founding editor of NBTB’s 650 West. From Colorado, Allie can often be found skiing the Rocky Mountains. Follow Allie on Twitter at @alliemkelly  and on her website, alliekellymedia.com.

Ananya Panchal (team leader – global journalism) is a rising junior studying journalism and criminal justice at Boston University. As a five-year-old who listened to NPR on the way to kindergarten every morning, Ananya always knew she wanted to be a journalist. She founded her high school newspaper The Quill and became editor-in-chief. At BU, Ananya has been a writer and multimedia editor for The Daily Free Press. She now serves as the Snapchat news anchor for a weekly newscast called FreeP this Week. In the fall, Ananya will continue with the BUZZ, BU’s lifestyle magazine, as culture editor. Ananya attended NBTB 2016 as a Year 1 student, where she got a close-up look at San Francisco’s surging homeless population while working on “Worlds Apart,” a student-led pop-up project. Two years later, Ananya self-published a book, Homeless of Silicon Valley, with photos and interviews of 20 homeless people across the Bay Area. This summer, while not at NBTB, Ananya is interning at the San Francisco Chronicle’s culture desk and working on a digital project celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. Ananya was born and raised in the Bay Area and hopes to return some day. While not writing articles or conducting interviews, you can find Ananya exploring the city of Boston, tanning at a beach or performing poetry at various cafes and stages across the country. Find Ananya on Twitter @ananyapanch.

Becca Fleming (CIT – global journalism) is a rising junior at Nicolet High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This past year she has been working on starting a newspaper at her high school and has recently received the green light to begin publishing next fall as editor-in-chief. Becca has also worked on her school’s broadcast news show, The Shield, and has served as sound manager for multiple school theatre productions. Becca is an active participant in Model UN and her school’s Global Scholars program. She serves as president for her chapter of B’nai Brith Youth Organization. Becca attended Newsroom by the Bay 2019 where she had an incredible time. Newsroom inspired her to seriously pursue journalism. She is looking forward to this summer’s program and is very excited to be the CIT for global journalism. Find Becca on Instagram @bec.l.fleming.

Camille Respess (team leader – magazine) is a journalism student at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. She is a fellow at NBC News and is also working under the mentorship of Pulitzer Prize winner Sara Ganim for a data-driven journalism project for the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. Additionally, Camille is also on a team producing a crime-focused podcast series with WUFT, a regional NPR and PBS affiliate in Florida. In the past, Camille has worked for Chalkbeat, an education news source based in New York, The Trace, the Riverfront Times and the Independent Florida Alligator. Camille was awarded the 2019 National Association of Black Journalists Acel Moore Scholarship for Community Journalism. She was a fellow with the Dow Jones News Fund in 2019. Camille was also an assistant project editor for “Since Parkland,” an expansive project about gun-related deaths of minors in the one year since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which won multiple awards and was nominated for a 2020 Webby People’s Voice Award in the Best Individual Editorial Feature – Media Company category. Camille got her start in community-driven journalism at her high school newsmagazine in St. Louis.

Claire Chu (program assistant) is a rising freshman at UC Berkeley to pursue Business and Media Studies. She began journalism in 9th grade and is the Editor-in-Chief of her high school’s publication, The Stampede. Although her first story was torn and invalidated with errors, she stuck with journalism and plans to write for The Daily Californian at Cal. Claire’s work has been featured at the state level, as she’s covered dozens of stories for CC Spin, her county’s newspaper. In 2019, she was a student writer for “Since Parkland”, an exhaustive project that honored the lives of children and teens lost to gun violence in the year after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Claire earned several Lesher Awards, placing first in 2020 for reporting an in-depth story about a series of racist incidents in her community. During her (slim) free time, Claire likes to experiment with new recipes, running or binge watching Survivor. Find Claire on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @clairechu02.

Gracie Sandman (CIT-global journalism) is a rising junior at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, California. She has been a staff reporter for the school newspaper, The Crier, for the past two years and is the incoming managing editor-in-chief. She is also a member of Mayfield’s Film and Media conservatory and an active participant in digital storytelling workshops. Gracie has made award-winning documentaries about the experiences of Holocaust survivors, which have screened at numerous film festivals. She recently became a William P. Lauder intern for the iWitness program at the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation where she virtually engaged with testimonies of genocide survivors and designed social impact projects. Gracie attended Newsroom by the Bay last summer where she developed interests in investigative journalism, website design and food reviews. At NBTB this summer, she hopes to combine these interests and use her skills to help create a global journalism website. Find Gracie on Instagram @gracie.sandman.

Kat Rowlands (guest speaker/teacher) is owner of Bay City News, an Oakland-based subscription service providing 24/7 coverage of the nine Bay Area counties. A 2017 John S. Knight Fellow, Rowlands has been an editor at Bay Area News group and most recently was editor in chief at Diablo Magazine in Walnut Creek. Rowlands began her career as a BCN intern and went back to buy the company. She has also founded Local News Matters, a nonprofit aimed at serving local news deserts, collaborating with other journalism organizations, mentoring a new generation of journalists, and experimenting with technology.

JJ Hennessy (team leader – tech and interactives) is a rising freshman at Stanford University, where he plans on majoring in symbolic systems. JJ’s interest in journalism was not ignited until his freshman year of high school when he was onboarded as a web developer for Global Student Square, an international student journalism network that aims to leverage and amplify the voices of youth. This will be JJ’s second year at NBTB, where he will use wands and wizardry to assist in addressing everyone’s most dire technological challenges. In his free time, JJ loves to investigate unexplored realms within computer science and neuroscience — his two favorite fields of study. He is currently working on a project which aims to enhance the quality of one’s life by giving suggestions on how to alter behavior using neurological data (read more here). When not inflexibly glued to a computer monitor, JJ loves to go on scenic runs, build new things and play with his dog and two cats. 

Julia Satterthwaite (faculty, advanced digital storytelling) advises the El Estoque newspaper and website at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California. She is a certified journalism educator and was recently elected as director-at-large to the board of the Journalism Education Association. Before moving to California last year, Satterthwaite advised The Talon newspaper and website in Rochester Hills, Michigan for 11 years, and also served as Michigan’s state director. Her students’ publications consistently earn top state and national honors. She was awarded Michigan’s Adviser of the Year in 2014. Satterthwaite earned her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Michigan State University. She loves spending time with her family, reading, singing, being outdoors and traveling. Her love for travel developed when she attended 10th-12th grade at Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan.

Lexi Matthews (team leader – broadcast) is a rising junior majoring in journalism at Boston University with a focus in broadcast news. She produces work for Golden Deer Productions, a Boston news and entertainment podcast, and directs, writes and produces for three news shows at BU’s student-run broadcast station, BUTV10. This spring, Lexi was the live results producer for Primary Focus, BUTV10’s live, two hour primary election coverage, which recently won a National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for best college broadcast. She also hosts Let’s Get Lit, a WTBU radio show discussing literature and the music it inspires. Originally from Olney, Maryland, Lexi has also worked in print journalism as editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, The Warrior, and as a beat reporter for The Daily Free Press, BU’s independent newspaper. She became interested in broadcast journalism by accident; during her freshman year, a friend at school made her attend an interest meeting for Good Morning BU, a live on-campus news show, and she became hooked on broadcast writing ever since. She is also passionate about politics, sports, social justice and mint chocolate chip ice cream. This is her first year with NBTB, and she couldn’t be more excited! Find her on Twitter @leximatthews11 or Instagram @_leximatthews. 

Logan Schiciano (CIT – broadcast) is a rising high school junior at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He served this year as an editor-in-chief of Tower, the school’s award winning student-run newspaper and has also produced play-by-play and color commentary for school sporting events. Beginning next fall, Logan plans to incorporate more broadcast into his school’s journalism curriculum in his role as new ventures editor. In addition to attending Newsroom by the Bay as a Year 1 student in 2019, Logan was a member of the Team USA delegation at the 15th European Maccabi Games in Budapest, Hungary,  last August. He served as an on-the-ground reporter for Maccabi USA and had his work published on their website. Logan is a member of Masters’ varsity cross country, indoor track and golf teams and has  been a ski instructor for young children in Stratton, Vermont, for the past three years. He is also a dedicated member of his school’s sustainability and community service initiatives. Follow Logan on Instagram @logan.schiciano and Twitter @LoganSchiciano.

Macy Quinn-Sears (program assistant) is a rising third year student at Cardiff University, majoring in journalism, communications and politics. She caught the journalism bug in 8th grade, and fought to keep her school newspaper, The Wa-Hi Journal, alive throughout high school, acting as news, opinion, sports and features editor, as well as editor-in-chief during her senior year. She also helped organise various mental health awareness events in her community, as well as protests including Women’s March 2017-18 and March for Our Lives 2018. At Cardiff University, Macy has worked in digital marketing internships with Whey Forward Health Industries and Local Link Magazine. Macy was nominated for Intern of the Year, and was awarded Student Mentor of the Year for the Journalism, Media and Communications school, where she serve as lead mentor consultant next year. Macy joined the NBTB team in 2015 as a Year 2 student, returned as a counselor-in-training specializing in social media, and stepped up to program assistant in 2017, managing NBTB’s social media and alumni page. When she’s not buried in lecture notes, Macy is either spending too much time cooking for herself or wandering around Cardiff looking for dogs to pet. Find Macy on Facebook, Instagram (@macyqs) and Twitter (@opinionatedqs).

Maggie Galloway (team leader – global journalism/podcast) is a rising junior at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she is studying journalism and international studies. Originally from the Bay Area, Maggie got her start in journalism as a writer and editor at the Berkeley High Jacket, the award-winning student-run newspaper at Berkeley High School During her gap year she worked as a stringer for several newspapers in Massachusetts under the Wicked Local umbrella.  At NU, Maggie edits the Pregame section for North by Northwestern. She also specializes in science and healthcare journalism, earning a Best of Medill Award in 2019 for a story on the inequalities of NU’s student health insurance. Maggie loves exploring the intersection between journalism and comedy as a managing editor at the satirical newspaper, The Northwestern Flipside. Last summer she worked as an intern at the KQED News podcast Bay Curious where she researched, reported, scripted and edited her own episode on Berkeley’s failed bid to be the California state capitol. This summer Maggie has received a Northwestern Summer Undergraduate Research Grant to report on single-payer healthcare from the perspective of American and Canadian expats.This is Maggie’s second year with NBTB, and while she wishes she could see all your faces in person, she’s excited to be a part of this new journey for NBTB! Find Maggie on Twitter @yourgalgalloway.

Matthew Asuncion (coordinating editor and team leader – global journalism) is a rising junior at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Matthew’s love for storytelling led him through a variety of creative pursuits ranging from writing satire and hosting open mic nights to disk jockeying and reporting on high school sports. Matthew attended NBTB 2017 as a Year 2 student and has returned every year since. Matthew was part of the team that prototyped the multimedia project “Since Parkland,” which was published by The Trace and the Miami Herald in February 2019.  He also served as senior project reporter. As part of UBC’s Bachelor of Media Studies program, Matthew covers everything from K’naan to Netflix comedy specials. He is a senior editor and web designer for Global Student Square, where he is an author of the GSS Handbook editorial guide for student correspondents. Matthew edited the inaugural issue of Beacon: The UBC Journal of Media Studies and is a staff member for The Ubyssey. Online, Matthew can be found tweeting from @mattjasuncion. Offline, he can be found riding long-distance trains, shredding his ukulele or chasing his dog wherever he ran off to this time.

Michelle Coro (faculty, broadcast/video journalism) teaches at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, where she advises the award-winning DV Thunder Media, including  DVTV broadcasting as well as The View newspaper and the Storm yearbook. Michelle earned a B.A. in broadcast journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and a master’s degree in education technology from the University of Phoenix. She is also an adjunct professor in digital design at the College of Fine Arts and Production at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Prior to teaching, Michelle worked as a police reporter, on-air reporter and producer for Tribune Newspapers in Mesa, Arizona, KYMA-TV, KSAZ-TV and WDAF-TV. In addition to teaching, Michelle is a consultant for media workshops and seminars, a recipient of the Arizona Adviser of the Year award, a board member of the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association and the National Scholastic Press Association and a founding member of the Scholastic Journalism Institute. She also serves on the executive board for the Delta Beta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Michelle married her college sweetheart, sports journalist Paul Coro, with whom she has two daughters. In her spare time, Michelle enjoys photography, yoga, reading, power walking and playing with Chai, her cocker spaniel (chaithespaniel on Instagram). “I’m busy and blessed!” is Michelle’s mantra.

Natalie Venable (CIT – magazine) is a rising senior at Thousand Oaks High School and is an editor-in-chief for its student newspaper, The Lancer. She has been working on The Lancer since freshman year and has also recently started writing for the Los Angeles Times’ High School Insider. After attending Newsroom by the Bay last summer, Natalie was hooked on digital media and made it her mission to incorporate it into The Lancer. As much as she loves creating multimedia packages, to Natalie nothing can compare holding a physical magazine in hand and poring over each page. This summer, she intends to channel that passion into NBTB’s interactive magazine and all of her reporting endeavors. When Natalie isn’t in the newsroom writing, editing and descending into madness, she can be found in her kitchen trying new recipes and hanging out with her two dogs whom she loves very much. Find Natalie on Instagram (@natalievenable) and Twitter (@natalievenablee). 

Riley Villiers (team leader – broadcast) is a rising senior at Boston University, majoring in broadcast journalism. She started her journalism career in 7th grade as the opinion editor of her junior high school’s newspaper, Hoofbeats. After her first byline, she was hooked and continued pursuing this path through high school and into college. At Boston University, Riley has been a news editor for The Daily Free Press and a radio host for WTBU. This past semester she interned for the producers at WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston. She is currently the director for On That Point, a long-form interview show, and a producer of Good Morning BU, the only live news show on campus. A live Super Tuesday election broadcast that Riley produced in February recently won a National Student Production Award for best college/university newscast. When Riley’s not in the studio, she can be found working at a comic book store or dancing to Doja Cat in elevators. Find Riley on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @rileyvilliers.

Rod Satterthwaite (faculty, photojournalism) is the adviser to The Campanile newspaper and the InFocus broadcast program at Palo Alto High School in California. He is president of the Journalism Education Association of Northern California and serves on the Certification Commission for the Journalism Education Association. He has been named a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Distinguished adviser and Michigan’s journalism adviser of the year, and his students’ publications have received multiple Crown and Pacemaker awards. This is his 31st year of teaching and advising.

Ruby Rosenthal (team leader – magazine) is a rising junior at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida where she is pursuing a double major in political science and international studies. At Stetson, Ruby is the editor-in-chief of the student-run media collective Hatter Network, which includes The Reporter newsmagazine, Touchstone Literary and Arts Journal, and WHAT Radio. Ruby attended NBTB 2016 and has been hooked on multimedia storytelling ever since. This summer, as well as joining NBTB’s team, Ruby will be an intern at Voice of America. In addition to her journalism, Ruby’s poetry has been featured in undergraduate journals, including Zaum Press and 30 North Literary Review. Her work has been honored with a Pacemaker Award from the National Scholastic Press Association, a Gold Circle Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and a Sullivan Creative Writing award in poetry from Stetson. When she’s not working on her own writing, Ruby’s publishing the work of others on Dear Makeshift Journal or dancing to records in her room with the lights off and candles lit. And yes, she did like records before they were cool; she’s that person. Follow Ruby’s ramblings on Twitter @raycharlessong and Instagram @rubyprosenthal, and take a peek at her combination portfolio and personal blog.

Sandra Coyer (faculty, news reporting and writing) is the director of student media at Puyallup High School in Puyallup, Washington. She teaches AP Senior Literature; Sophomore Journalism; Broadcast 1, 2 and 3; and Media Arts. Her students manage media content in print (the Viking Vanguard), broadcast (Viking News Network and The Helm), and online (vikingvanguard.com). Coyer graduated with a communications degree in 1998 from Washington State University. She is past president of the Washington Journalism Education Association and has served as the Journalism Education Association’s regional director and local chair for the 2017 JEA/NSPA Spring National Convention. Sandra received the JEA’s Medal of Merit in 2018 and was named a Dow Jones News Fund Distinguished Adviser in 2018 and Special Recognition Adviser in 2008. In 2019, Sandra was one of 20 teachers chosen for the CSJ Advanced Advisers Fellowship at Kent State University, where she enhanced her skills in podcasting, 360-degree video and audience engagement. Sandra’s hobbies include running and training for half marathons; asked by the Seattle Times in 2015 if she could see herself anywhere but the classroom, she replied : “Fleetingly. I can’t even imagine what would make me as happy and give me as much joy as teaching.”

Scott Silton (faculty; politics and media literacy) is adviser to The Aragon Outlook at Aragon High School in San Mateo, California. He grew up in suburban Maryland where he began obsessively reading The Washington Post and incessantly arguing with his prep school teachers about politics. After graduating from Bowdoin College, Scott worked for a professional services practice whose clients included government agencies before earning an M.Ed from Ohio State University in social studies education. Scott began his teaching career at Gunderson High School in San Jose, where he became department chair and developed an AP Government course first taught in the fall of 2000. He continued teaching AP Government after joining the Aragon High School faculty in 2002. He has advised the Outlook since 2003.

Taylor Bradford (faculty, digital media) works on The Seattle Times‘ digital team as a news producer. She develops strategies to reach online audiences, oversees the newsroom’s flagship social media accounts, and manages seattletimes.com during breaking news. She also works with the newsroom’s investigative team on audience engagement, digital strategy and story presentation. Blatchford writes a weekly newsletter called The Lead for student journalists in college and high school and has coached students around the country in classrooms and at conferences. The Online News Association named her an MJ Bear Fellow in 2019 for her work with the newsletter. She earned a bachelor’s degree in investigative and international journalism from the University of Missouri and has previously worked at the Poynter Institute, Investigative Reporters and Editors, POLITICO Europe and the Columbia Missourian.

Emeriti

Paul B. Kandell (co-founder/director emeritus), the 2009 Dow Jones News Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year, and the 2009 California Journalism Teacher of the Year, earned a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and reported for Newsweek before becoming a high school journalism instructor in 1996. In addition to advising two award-winning journalism publications — Verde magazine and The Paly Voice — at Palo Alto High School, he serves on the board of the Journalism Education Association of Northern California and has served on the Student Press Law Center’s Advisory Council Steering Committee. Paul was one of the driving forces behind Palo Alto High School’s $10 million media arts center.

Steve O’Donoghue (faculty emeritus) taught journalism for 27 years in Oakland, California. He founded The Media Academy, a school-within-a-school program built around journalism. Long involved with scholastic journalism issues, he was the 1990 Dow Jones Newspaper Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, California State High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, and the recipient of the Medal of Merit for the Journalism Education Association, the Pioneer Award from the National Scholastic Press Association, and the James F. Paschal Award and Gold Key from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. In 2011, Steve received the Carl Towley Award, JEA’s highest honor. He is director of the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, a non-profit program to improve journalism in California schools.