South Jersey Information Equity Project welcomes 2025 reporting fellows
The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University launched the 2025 South Jersey Information Equity Project (SJIEP) reporting fellowship on Saturday, Jan. 11, with an introductory workshop series held at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ.
The event brought together six new fellows, Center for Cooperative Media Staff, and a team of seasoned advisers, including Melanie Burney of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Linda Shockley, former managing director of the Dow Jones News Fund.
The day began with introductions over breakfast and set the tone for collaboration. Rod Hicks, director of ethics and diversity for the Society of Professional Journalists and veteran journalist, led a workshop on “Writing for Print and Digital Publications.” Hicks provided practical tips on clear writing and guided the fellows through an exercise on concise, active-voice writing.
After lunch, Cherri Gregg, afternoon host and anchor for WHYY, the Philadelphia-based NPR station, delivered a presentation titled “Uncovering and Telling Compelling Stories in Your Community.” Gregg shared her career journey, offered examples of her reporting, and engaged the fellows in discussions about the importance of community and restorative journalism. The session also featured strategies for building trust with local sources and ethical considerations in reporting.
The day concluded with a session on restorative narrative journalism, highlighting how this approach can shift reporting from focusing on problems to emphasizing solutions and positivity. Fellows had the chance to ask questions and learn more about their upcoming community convenings and the work they’ll undertake throughout the next six months.
The SJIEP fellowships play a critical role in improving local journalism in New Jersey by addressing long-standing issues of representation and equity in newsrooms. They also aim to enhance the coverage of South Jersey communities that have been historically underrepresented in local and state media.
We’re excited to support the work of our 2025 fellows! Please join us in welcoming them to the SJIEP network:
Lydia Kai Adjetey
Adjetey is a Ghanaian international student majoring in journalism and community storytelling at Stockton University. She is the founder and president of Stockton University’s first Entrepreneurship Club, which aims to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit on campus. In addition to her leadership roles, she serves as a Resident Assistant and a Global Engagement Mentor. In these roles, she provides guidance and supports international students transitioning to campus life at Stockton.
Adjetey has gained hands-on journalism experience as an intern at Stories of Atlantic City, where she conducted interviews and produced local stories, including a feature on Atlantic City’s World War II veterans. She is also the founder of Love Nation, a nonprofit organization raising funds through GoFundMe to provide food, clothing, and basic necessities to children in Ghana. Deeply committed to community-focused journalism, Adjetey has a long-term goal to build a media house in Ghana, empowering underrepresented communities through storytelling and fostering media literacy.
Brian Harper-Pinckney
Also known as Ambition The Poet, Harper-Pinckney is a four-time author and poetry and theater teacher. He leads workshops designed to help poets harness their passion, stories, and memories to craft impactful messages. Harper-Pinckney views spoken word as the intersection of literature and acting, which shapes his approach to teaching and performing. As a poet, he has performed at Rutgers University, Temple University, the NAACP, and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, as well as at numerous conferences and panels.
Known for his foster care advocacy, Harper-Pinckney has created conferences and workshop panels on how to improve the foster care system. He uses his own adoption story to uplift and to encourage children and adults who have experienced similar traumas.
Jewel Justice
Justice is a writer, journalist, and photographer with a B.A. in African American Studies from Princeton University. Her work across genres creatively explores Black folks’ interior lives as well as issues of race and society from the lens of Blackness. As a journalist, Justice writes about history, culture, and art that has been excluded and invisible. She is excited to work as an SJIEP fellow to help make more local stories visible and open doors for people and perspectives that have been misrepresented, underrepresented, or not considered at all.
Monique Howard
Howard is a contributing writer for The Quintessential Gentleman, Stay Focused, and Legacy magazines. Her articles include features about public figures, news recaps, and film reviews. Howard is a Rowan University graduate with a B.A. in Writing Arts. She is an avid reader and film buff and actively serves as a volunteer in her church and surrounding community.
Asiya Robinson
A Deptford Township native, Robinson is a recent graduate of Rowan University, where she majored in Writing Arts with double minors in Creative Writing and Journalism. Her passion for storytelling earned her second place in the Rowan Emerging Writers competition for creative nonfiction. Robinson has gained valuable experience as a reporter for The New Town Press, covering local news and community stories, and as a digital content creator for the Rowan University Blog. Robinson is eager to expand her expertise and share compelling stories and aspires to be a professional journalist and author.
Frank Santos
Santos is a multimedia journalist of Puerto Rican and Nicaraguan descent from Camden, NJ. Santos has a decade of experience in community relations, digital marketing, and graphic design, and specializes in creating socially impactful media content for small businesses and non-profit organizations. He also mentors students as part of Scholastic’s R.E.A.L. Program at Octavius V. Catto Community School in Camden.
Santos is this year’s Senior Fellow, having first participated in the 2024 cohort. During his first stint with SJIEP, Santos published work on BlackinJersey.com. Prior to his fellowship, Santos proudly designed the first Camden Food Book in collaboration with Stories Invincible and the Center for Cooperative Media. This project highlighted the issue of food insecurity and profiled local heroes working to feed their community. Passionate about enhancing the digital ecosystem for Black and Brown communities, Santos aims to continue developing multimedia resources that improve socioeconomic communication efforts.
About the South Jersey Information Equity Project: The Center for Cooperative Media partnered with the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists to launch SJIEP in April 2020. Its goal is to address media inequity in South Jersey, specifically by seeking to improve the quality and quantity of news and information produced by and for communities of color.
Adrienne Bauldock is the SJIEP coordinator at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the Independence Public Media Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
