Nice to meet you! Let us introduce ourselves.
Founder & Editor in Chief
Holly’s dream is to empower young people to change the world by helping them become more informed and engaged. She is the founder and editor in chief of Kicker. Her past lives have included editing for The New York Times Learning Network, teaching high school, advising student newspapers, and freelance reporting. Follow: @heoj.
Contributors
Lily is a soon-to-be NYU grad and a freelance writer based in New York City. She’s covered politics, comedy, and education in The New York Times and The Village Voice. And has interned at She’s The First, a nonprofit dedicated to providing education to women in developing countries, and NBC. Follow: @lilyalta.
Jenny is a freelance writer and former NPR intern from Orange County, Calif. At UC Santa Cruz, she was editor-in-chief of City on a Hill Press. Follow: @jennymcain.
Ryan Chavis
Ryan is a social media enthusiast and cupcake connoisseur currently residing in Brooklyn. Originally from North Carolina, he worked in banking before taking on the Big Apple to study writing and reporting at NYU. He loves marketing, lomography, theatre, and the color mint. Follow: @JamesRyanChavis.
Susannah is an NYU student who has interned at USA Today College, Games.com, The New Yorker, The New York Times, NBC, and Vogue, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is from Memphis. Follow: @susannahgriffee.
Eric Larson is an editorial intern at Mashable, where he covers news and social good. Before moving to New York, he interned with NPR in Washington, D.C. He’s interested in politics, education, Wisconsin sports teams (read: the Green Bay Packers) and all things social media. Follow: @elarson0429.
Sarah Morgan has been a nonprofit fundraiser, a door-to-door canvasser, and, most recently, a personal finance reporter for SmartMoney.com. She is now a freelance writer who lives in Brooklyn with a cat named Jenkins and a bike named Zoe. Follow: @mssarahmorgan.
Michael is a freelance writer and photographer who believes quality journalism is necessary now more than ever. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of City on a Hill Press, the student-run weekly newspaper at UC Santa Cruz. Follow: @michael_w_mott.
Ryan is a freelance writer and a 2012 graduate of the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Bonaventure University. His work can also be found at NASCAR Lugnuts, VolunTEEN Nation and YoungThought. Follow: @RyanPapaserge.
Marc is the editor of a weekly newspaper in Putnam County, N.Y., writes breaking news for SI.com and has written for The New York Times. He has an M.S. in journalism from Columbia. Marc is a photographer who has also worked in publishing for Sesame Street and in recruiting on Wall Street. Follow: @questionmarcs.
Alumni
A native of Richmond, Virginia, Ben studied journalism at West Virginia University, where he worked for the Daily Athenaeum. He also completed a college fellowship at the Poynter Institute. Ben recently graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Follow: @benjarad.
Sarah is a community screener for HuffPost Live. In the past, she interned for Hardball With Chris Matthews at MSNBC and worked as a Web editor for an organization that aims to curb gang-related youth violence. Sarah has also done freelance reporting and Web development, and she has a journalism degree from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada. Follow: @journoholic.
Chelsia is a New York City reporter covering breaking news and downtown Manhattan for The Daily News, previously for DNAinfo New York. Chelsia freelanced for the WNYC/New York Times education blog, SchoolBook, while completing her MA in journalism at NYU. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, and elsewhere. Follow: @chelsiamarcius.
Associate Editors
Laura Buchwald
Laura writes about lifestyle and media for print and the web. She is a former reporter for the New York Post’s Page Six and her work has appeared in LA Confidential, Gotham Magazine and XOJane. She is a memoir editor and ghostwriter and is currently working on a novel for which she won a first chapter award from the Bronx Council on the Arts. Follow: @LauraBuchwald.
Rachel Kleinman
Rachel earned her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in 2002, where she sang in Measure 4 Measure, an all-female, a capella singing ensemble. She went on to earn her Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the school’s independent student newspaper, The Cardozo Jurist. She was previously an associate editor at Tango Media, Inc. Rachel grew up in Highland Park, New Jersey, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Follow: @rak0319.
Jennifer Miller
Jennifer is the author of “The Year of the Gadfly” (Harcourt, 2012) and “Inheriting The Holy Land” (Ballantine, 2005). Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire, Allure, Salon.com, Fast Company, The Millions and The Daily Beast. Follow: @propjen.
Brianna Snyder
Brianna is a media fiend who knows in her heart that the journalism industry is going to be just fine if everyone just stops freaking out about it. She is an editor and writer for the Albany Times Union Magazine Division, and she also freelances. She’s written about technology, music, movies, books, health, pop culture, news and politics. She loves Indian food, staring guiltily at her backed-up issues of The New Yorker, and the Internet. Follow: @BriannaLSnyder.
Social Media Intern
Katie Riley
Katie is a graduate of the University of Tennessee Global Studies program and a professional social butterfly. Her interests include anything that tweets, tumbles, pins or posts. She volunteers in the campus program at She’s the First and is a lover of politics, spontaneous musical numbers, and sweet tea. Follow: @heykatieriley.
Designers
Elisa Lewis, Burning Ear Media
David Reid, radiantUX
Legal Counsel
The BLIP Clinic at Brooklyn Law School
Advisers
Dora Chomiak
Dora is a digital leader with experience in online marketing and sales, business development, product development, and strategy. Her expertise is in deploying emerging technologies for integrated, targeted media products, from vision to sustainable operations. She has experience with start-ups, Fortune 500 companies and non-profits and is fluent in Ukrainian.
Kathryn Kercher
Kathryn is a marketing, branding, and revenue strategist and business leader with experience working in media, entertainment, technology and social enterprises with a passion for the consumer and user experience. She has held multifunctional positions in business development and brand strategy with major media companies as well as with tech-based startups, and her expertise is uncovering new opportunities for properties and advertisers that drive engagement, acquisition, partnerships and sales.
Lee Rice Epstein
Lee likes his news synthesized: polls, charts, infographics, anything that presents highly complicated data as clean, user-friendly information. He currently works as project manager for Emmi Solutions in Chicago. Lee’s past work includes editing for McSweeney’s. Follow: @lee_re.