Author Bios

Abby Zimmardi is a summer 2021 Institute for Southern Studies intern who is interested in writing about human rights and reproductive justice. Zimmardi is a 2021 graduate of the …

Bianca Tylek is the Founder and Executive Director of Worth Rises. She is one the nation’s for most experts on the prison industry and a nationally recognized leader in …

Bianca Fortis is an Abrams Reporting Fellow at ProPublica.

Vasudha Desikan is the political director at the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE). Vasudha comes from a long history of campaigning in the labor movement, mostly …

Ryan M. Moser is a recovering addict from Philly serving time in the Florida Department of Corrections for property crimes. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the …

Jeremy Kohler is a St. Louis-based reporter covering issues in Missouri and the Midwest. He came to ProPublica in January 2021 from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he worked …

Jena Brooker is a freelance journalist based in Detroit. She writes about the environment and intersections of race and inequality. She is the Midwest Fellow for Grist. Follow Jena …

Cuban-born scholar and writer Odette Casamayor-Cisneros is associate professor of Latin American cultural studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Centered on Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx experiences, her current academic, …

Kristina M. Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in rhetoric at Colorado State University.

Jessica Agbemavor is a 2021 summer intern at the Institute for Southern Studies and a rising senior at UNC Greensboro studying political science. She enjoys researching and writing about …