Voices is a student program that provides aspiring journalists with career-ready skills to succeed in the continually-evolving media landscape. By nurturing relationships between students and professional volunteers, Voices also gives students the opportunity to tap into mentors’ networks and begin their own while also providing AAJA journalists leadership and management opportunities.
Editors
Mallory Carra is a longtime journalist, editor, and teacher based in Los Angeles with nearly 20 years of experience working in digital, audio, and print journalism. Currently, she works at Spotify’s Parcast Studios, writing and editing scripts for the platform’s top-rated exclusive podcasts, such as Disappearances with Sarah Turney, Serial Killers, and Unexplained Mysteries. Outside of Spotify, Mallory is an adjunct professor at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, where she teaches a course in which students write, report, and produce a daily radio show/podcast.
Previously, Mallory worked as an editor at Bustle for over 5 years and began her journalism career in newspapers as a staff writer for the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee and The News & Observer in North Carolina. She has contributed work to the BBC World Service, E! News, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, the New York Daily News, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among many, many others.
Nicole Clark (she/her) is Polygon’s culture editor. She’s also a culture critic covering internet culture and accessibility, video games, books, TV, and mental health. Her work can be found in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, NBC Asian America, and elsewhere. She’s been on NPR’s KCRW, BBC Radio 5 Live, and Waypoint Radio; and hosted a panel at San Diego Comic Con. In 2021, Nicole was part of the Poynter Power of Diverse Voices cohort. And in 2019, Nicole was a Society for Features Journalism Diversity Fellow. Nicole was also a contributing editor at literary magazine Catapult from 2019 - 2023. Prior to Polygon, Nicole executive-produced Freelancing With Tim, and was a culture writer at Vice. She’s also worked as a bookseller, and loves nothing more than throwing a picnic blanket down in a park in Los Angeles, and curling up with a book and a cup of coffee.
Paulina Jeng is a bilingual social media professional focused on audience development and content strategy. She is currently an audience editor at NBC News' Meet the Press and has previously held roles at Axios, ESPN and New York Public Radio. Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, she is a staunch advocate for issues regarding belonging, diversity, equity and inclusion. When not in the newsroom, she can be found listening to artists in the concert hall, cheering at sporting events (Go Bears & Go Hogs!) and traveling the world to explore different foods and cultures. She is based in Washington, D.C.
Harmeet Kaur is a culture writer for CNN, where she's spent eight years in various roles across the newsroom. Her work explores questions of race and identity and how they shape the cultural conversation. Previously, Harmeet was a producer on CNN's digital programming team, where she crafted push notifications and headlines and curated homepages across platforms. She started her career in television production. Harmeet is a graduate of Emory University, where she studied international affairs and journalism. Raised in the Appalachian Mountain town of Pikeville, Kentucky, she's now based in Brooklyn, New York.
Jeong Park is an Asian American communities reporter for the Los Angeles Times, with a focus on capturing the diversity of the population and telling stories for the community. Previously, he was an economic mobility reporter for the Sacramento Bee, covering how California policies affect the lives of workers. He also covered cities and communities for the Orange County Register and worked as a local reporter in Lafayette, Indiana. Park considers both Seoul, where he was born, and Southern California, where he grew up after immigrating as an 11-year-old "parachute kid", as his home. He graduated from UCLA with a political science degree, spending four years at the school's paper, Daily Bruin. He welcomes recommendations for good hikes, food and K-Pop songs.
Karena Phan is currently a reporter at The Associated Press based in Los Angeles. She is part of the news verification desk at AP, where she investigates online misinformation and debunks false narratives. She's reported on a variety of topics including legislation, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and more. Before joining the AP, she worked at TIME For Kids, TIME magazine’s classroom edition for young readers. She received a bachelor’s degree in literary journalism with a minor in digital information systems at the University of California, Irvine.
Omar Shaikh Rashad is the government accountability reporter at Fresnoland, where he is focused on covering public spending, homelessness, policing, health and more. His work is built around using data to simplify complicated policy and explore systems for their impacts on people’s lives. He completed past reporting stints at The Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle and CalMatters. Rashad is a proud community college graduate and once served as the Editor-in-Chief of The Union, the student newspaper at El Camino College in Torrance, California. After that, he ran data and investigations at Mustang News, the student newspaper at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where his reporting influenced campus movements demanding greater COVID-19 safety.
Nirvi Shah is education enterprise editor for USA TODAY, working with the national education reporting team and Gannett Network education reporters nationwide. She recently spent a year as a Spencer fellow in education reporting at Columbia University. Prior to that, she spent eight years as an editor and reporter for POLITICO. She was founding editor of the POLITICO Pro Education policy team before becoming deputy managing editor for all POLITICO policy teams. She oversaw expansion of policy coverage for POLITICO from the seat of the European Union and launched a wide range of subscription and consumer news products for POLITICO on both sides of the pond. She previously worked as special education and school climate reporter at Education Week. And she spent years as a journalist in South Florida for The Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post. She won an SPJ Green Eyeshade award in deadline reporting with Post colleagues.