(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Staff updates: New reporters on climate, cultural economy beats [1] ['Terry Baquet', 'More Terry Baquet', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-03-29 From left to right: Josie Abugov, Tristan Baurick, Drew Costley, Katie Jane Fernelius. We’re excited to share that there are some new faces, and new roles for more familiar faces, in Verite’s newsroom. Verite News fellow Josie Abugov is joining the newsroom as a full-time reporter on the cultural economy beat. As a fellow, Josie has tackled a wide-ranging array of stories about arts and culture, reproductive health and local government, landing scoops on stories about the River District development and efforts to greenlight a controversial reality show shadowing city EMS workers. In her new role, Josie will pursue people-focused stories on how the hospitality and tourism industry shapes New Orleans, documenting the relationship between the industry and those who work in it. Tristan Baurick, most recently an environment reporter for The Times-Picayune | Nola.com, recently joined Verite to continue his important work on the beat here as a senior reporter focusing on climate change and the environment. Tristan is one of Louisiana’s most seasoned environmental journalists, having earned first-place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Science Writers and National Headliner Awards. He was part of a reporting team that won the Society of Environmental Journalists’ top overall award and its investigative reporting prize. Drew Costley, a senior reporter who has covered health and the environment since they joined Verite’s staff last year, has been promoted to assistant managing editor. In their new role, Drew will run the newsroom’s fellowship program, guiding early-career journalists to hone their reporting and storytelling skills. Drew’s teaching background and their strong approach to mentorship will be a real asset to the program, and they’ll continue to lend their subject matter expertise to our environmental desk. Finally, you may have seen the byline of Katie Jane Fernelius, who joined Verite News as our new local government reporter earlier this year. Katie has lived in New Orleans for five years and is now jumping back into local reporting after spending most of her career working on longer-term projects, from investigations to profiles to podcast series. In her short time at Verite, Katie has covered Entergy’s Operation Gridiron proposal, the unionization effort of a notable French immersion school and the efforts of Republican lawmakers to weaken public sector unions. She hopes to focus on labor, utilities and poverty, with an emphasis on how local governance materially impacts city residents. We’re proud that in less than two years Verite News has grown from just a concept to full-fledged news organization. We remain committed to continuing our mission to report on stories, communities and people too often overlooked and omitted by traditional media. Have a tip you’d like to send one of our reporters, or thoughts about our coverage? Email us at info@veritenews.org. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/03/29/staff-updates-climate-cultural-economy/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/