The Team
Reporters
Ali Durkin
Ali Durkin graduated with her master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in December 2012 with a concentration in public policy reporting. At Medill, Ali's reporting focused on a range of topics, from politics and national security. Her work has appeared in publications including the Military Times, The Texas Tribune and U-T San Diego. Ali graduated from the University of Notre with a bachelor's degree in English in May 2011.
Carly Helfand
Carly Helfand grew up in the Chicagoland area. She earned her B.A. in art history from Tufts University, where she was also the executive editor of the paper's sports department. After graduation, Carly spent two years teaching English in Prague before coming to Medill, where she has primarily been covering business and energy. Among other things, she is particularly passionate about pro hockey, Irish music and the optimal use of Twitter.
Christina Choi
Christina Choi graduated with her master’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in August 2012. She graduated from Boston University in 2008 with a bachelor’s in Art History. At Medill, Christina focused on health and science reporting with a magazine concentration. She also participated in the summer 2012 innovation project.
Dana Ballout
Dana Ballout completed her master's degree at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in December 2012. At Medill, she concentrated on political affairs and national security reporting. Before attending graduate school, she worked at the United National Development Program in Beirut, Lebanon, on a project supporting national dialogues and political reform. In Lebanon, she also worked as a freelance photojournalist and writer. Dana received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine, in international relations.
David Kashi
David Kashi is a master of science candidate at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He’s focused his work at Medill thus far on covering the energy sector, the NATO summit and its geopolitical implications and, most recently, energy security. David is a New York native and holds a bachelor’s degree in government diplomacy from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, majoring in international affairs, counter-terrorism and homeland security.
Elizabeth Bunn
Elizabeth Bunn earned her master's degree in business and broadcast at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in December 2012. At Medill she covered business, national security and politics. In August 2012, Elizabeth covered the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL with the Associated Press. Her work has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the National Strategy Forum Review and Medill Money Mavens. Elizabeth will spend the first months of 2013 as an intern with Bloomberg News in New York.
Kevin Wang
Qixin "Kevin" Wang is a hard-nosed national security reporter with Medill National Security Journalism Initiative. During the three-month project, Kevin kept a close track of U.S. military operations and strategies related to protecting U.S. energy security. His field trip to the Philippines led him to experience how America's presence in the world could affect other countries' energy security. When not doing reporting, Kevin enjoys reading foreign policy publications, competitive sports, and having a great tea time with friends.
Rosa Lin
Rosa grew up in the rolling countryside of Texas. After growing up on barbeque and tank-swimming, she obtained her bachelor's in Biology from Texas A&M University. Highlights include studying abroad in China and completing her degree at age nineteen. She then pursued health and science reporting at Medill, where she focused on science, technology, clean energy, and national security issues. In her spare time she sings opera.
Yue Wang
Yue double majored in international relations and English before attending Medill. She loves reporting and traveling. Yue went to Ecuador for the project and is very, very happy with food in the country.
Editors
Josh Meyer
Josh Meyer is the Director, Education and Outreach for the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative and the McCormick Lecturer in National Security Studies, based at the Medill Journalism School’s Washington, D.C. Program. He is the lead faculty member on this project. Before coming to Medill in 2010, he spent 20 years as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, the last decade of it as its chief terrorism/national security reporter. He also writes about national security for a variety of publications, and co-authored the critically acclaimed 2012 book, ``The Hunt For KSM; Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.’’ He is also on the board of directors of IRE, or Investigative Reporters and Editors. From the Boston suburbs, he is a 1986 graduate of the University of Massachusetts with degrees in Journalism and Social Thought & Political Economy. During his journalism career, he has won dozens of awards, including sharing in two Pulitzer Prizes, and an Overseas Press Club Award.
Ellen Shearer
Ellen Shearer is the William F. Thomas Professor in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, based in the school’s Washington Program. She also is co-director of the school’s National Security Journalism initiative. She recently co-edited “National Security Law in the News: A guide of Journalists, Scholars and Policymakers, published in November 2012 by the ABA Press. She is co-author of the book “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows,” has written chapters in six other books. Before joining the Medill faculty, Shearer, who has more than 20 years of experience in the news industry, was a senior editor at New York Newsday, a consulting editor at Newhouse News Service, marketing executive at Reuters, and held positions as senior executive, bureau chief and reporter during a 10-year stint at United Press International.
Kat Downs
Kat Downs is the Deputy Graphics Director at The Washington Post. Before coming to The Post in 2008, she worked at The Baltimore Sun. She creates multimedia projects that combine video, photography, graphics and social media. She also teaches design at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The youngest of seven girls, she grew up in Franklin, a small town in western North Carolina. She studied visual communication at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her work has been honored by the Peabody Awards, the Society of Newspaper Design, the Online Journalism Awards and the Malofiej International Infographics Awards. A Post series on military medicine on the front lines, which included her design and graphics work, was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting.
Greg Linch
Greg Linch is the Local Innovations Editor at The Washington Post, where he works on medium- and long-term journalism and technology projects. Greg previously worked on the newsroom's developer team and prior to that as a producer with the world/national security, politics and health/science teams. Before the Post, he worked at Pubilsh2, a journalism-technology start-up, and in college co-founded CoPress, a college media and technology start-up. A graduate of the University of Miami, Greg began joined the Online News Association board of directors in 2013 and is a member of IRE/NICAR. You might find him frequenting DC-area journalism, technology and science meetup events.