Early Childhood Reporting Institute 2026
Selected journalists
Top row: Mikele Syron, Ashlynne McGhee, Kellie Scott, Conor Duffy, Kayla Bathern Second row: Lyndal Rowlands, Natashya Gutierrez, Phoebe McIlwraith, Nicole Precel, Rhianna Patrick, Sarah Keoghan, Beverley Wang Third row: Lauren Novak, Rachael Bongiorno, Julie Cross, Lisa Martin, Rebecca Symons, Jeanette Severs Bottom row: Wing Kuang, Colin Cosier, Dellaram Vreeland, Jade Toomey, Anushri Sood, Aaliyah Dana Anderson, Ali Rae
About the cohort
Aaliyah Dana Anderson is a journalist with Indigenous Community Television and a radio host at Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association Radio. Outside her journalism work, she is involved in a range of creative fields, including film, visual art, music, graphic design and photography.
Kayla Bathern is an Indigenous journalist from Alice Springs who works with Indigenous Community Television. She is passionate about Indigenous storytelling and sees her role as a bridge between mainstream and remote media, bringing stories from communities across Central Australia and beyond to wider audiences.
Rachael Bongiorno is a multimedia journalist, editor and media educator based in Naarm/Melbourne. She has covered Australia and the Pacific as a breaking-news correspondent for NPR, and her work has appeared on ABC Radio National, ABC Pacific, Deutsche Welle, Democracy Now!, SBS Radio, WNYC, PRI and other outlets. She has also produced for the 7am podcast.
Colin Cosier is a journalist with Dateline, SBS Television’s international current-affairs program. He works across long-form reporting and production on stories from Australia and around the world, covering a wide range of people, communities and global issues.
Julie Cross is News Corp Australia’s National Social Affairs Editor, covering the NDIS, aged care, childcare and families. She has led public-interest campaigns including Let Them Be Kids, which contributed to Australia’s ban on social media for children under 16, and Care Repair, which helped prompt the government to abandon proposed aged-care co-charges for essential in-home support.
Conor Duffy is the ABC’s national education and parenting reporter. He previously served as the ABC’s North America correspondent and environment reporter and was an Andrew Olle scholar. He has worked on Lateline, 7.30 and AM, reported from bureaus across Australia and covered stories on assignment in countries including Thailand, Cambodia, New Zealand and Chile.
Natashya Gutierrez is an award-winning investigative journalist, television correspondent and newsroom leader. She has built and managed newsrooms across the Asia-Pacific region and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in recognition of her work. She also hosts and produces the news commentary podcast On Assignment With Me.
Sarah Keoghan is an investigative reporter at news.com.au. She previously worked as a senior courts and crime reporter and as a breaking-news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald, covering major stories involving crime, justice, public safety and Australian public affairs.
Wing Kuang is a Sydney-based journalist, audio producer and certified interpreter. Her work has appeared in Guardian Australia, SBS News, Al Jazeera English, The Saturday Paper and Meanjin, and she previously worked as a digital journalist and audio producer for ABC News. She holds master’s degrees in journalism and in interpreting and translation.
Lisa Martin is an Australian freelance journalist and four-time Walkley Award finalist. A former political reporter in the Canberra Press Gallery, she also spent three years as a Southeast Asia correspondent based in Bangkok. Her work regularly appears through Australian Associated Press and in other Australian and international publications.
Ashlynne McGhee is Head of Editorial Innovation at The Conversation. An award-winning journalist and former president of the Melbourne Press Club, she has hosted ABC TV’s News Breakfast and the 7am news podcast. She previously worked as a longtime investigative reporter for ABC TV’s 7.30 and as a federal political reporter for the ABC.
Phoebe McIlwraith is a Githabul Bundjalung and Worimi dubay/galbaan from coastal New South Wales, with heritage from the Hebrides in western Scotland. A multidisciplinary journalist with a background in political economy, she has worked for SBS, NITV, Guardian Australia, VICE, Refinery29, Pedestrian.TV and Common Ground First Nations. Her reporting centres accessible First Nations affairs and truth-telling.
Lauren Novak is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared across News Corp newspapers, magazines and websites for more than two decades. She specialises in education, parenting, family violence and child safety and is a three-time winner of the South Australian Press Club’s Gold Award for Journalist of the Year. In 2026, she published Meltdown: Why Motherhood Makes Us Angry and What to Do About It.
Rhianna Patrick is a Torres Strait Islander journalist, broadcaster and writer with almost three decades of experience. She currently works part-time as a senior journalist with the National Indigenous Radio Service, drawing on a career devoted to elevating First Nations voices and stories across Australian media.
Nicole Precel is an award-winning education reporter at The Age. Her journalism has included investigations into unregulated childcare centres and the experiences of sexual-assault survivors navigating Australia’s criminal justice system, as well as reporting from the Philippines on Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. She has produced documentaries for Al Jazeera English and SBS and was selected as a 2026 Constructive Journalism Institute fellow.
Ali Rae is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker with Al Jazeera English. She has reported from six continents on politics, technology, inequality and the climate crisis. She is co-creator and presenter of All Hail, a documentary series examining the systems of power that shape everyday life, including editions focused on algorithms, the pandemic, the planet and the military.
Lyndal Rowlands is an award-winning journalist, audio producer and former United Nations correspondent. Her reporting and production work has appeared on ABC Radio National, Al Jazeera, Audible Originals, The Guardian and Drilled, an investigative podcast focused on climate change, corporate responsibility and accountability.
Kellie Scott is a reporter for ABC Lifestyle, where she creates practical, service-oriented journalism designed to help audiences make informed decisions and improve their lives. Her reporting covers parenting, sex and relationships, childlessness, domestic violence, women’s health and the experiences of Australian families.
Jeanette Severs is a multi-award-winning journalist, photojournalist and content creator with a strong focus on rural communities and agricultural businesses. She produces news and feature stories and regularly investigates issues affecting regional Australians and the industries that sustain their communities.
Anushri Sood is an award-winning journalist who has worked across Australian public and commercial broadcasters as well as international outlets. Her experience spans news and current affairs across multiple platforms. In 2024, she received a Media Diversity Australia Mid-Year Walkley Award, and in 2026 she was appointed a judge for the Walkley Foundation’s Mid-Year Media Prizes.
Bec Symons is a multiplatform journalist in the ABC’s Gippsland bureau. She is passionate about investigating the issues affecting regional communities and bringing local experiences, challenges and perspectives to a national audience through reporting across digital, radio and television platforms.
Mikele Syron is a journalist whose reporting has appeared across NITV News, SBS News and other Australian outlets. Her work has covered First Nations affairs, health, justice and social policy across broadcast and digital platforms. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she was recognised by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia in 2019 for sensitive and deeply reported video journalism.
Jade Toomey is the ABC’s High Court and legal affairs reporter. She previously worked as a researcher for Four Corners and as a reporter in Canberra, North Queensland and Darwin, covering law, politics, courts and major public-interest stories across Australia.
Dellaram Vreeland is an Australian-born Iranian journalist living and working on Wadawurrung Country. Her reporting for Guardian Australia, The Age, Australian Community Media and frankie magazine focuses on regional and rural communities, particularly mental health, education, social justice and multicultural affairs. She has received awards from the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.
Beverley Wang is a broadcaster, journalist and producer whose career has spanned print, online, social media, radio and podcasting. At the ABC, she has produced live news and current-affairs programs across Radio Australia, NewsRadio and Radio National, served as executive producer of RN Drive, and created and hosted It’s Not a Race and Stop Everything! She currently hosts the Friday edition of Life Matters.
Program faculty and story coaches
Irene Caselli co-leads the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma’s Early Childhood Journalism Initiative and has served as a story coach for its global, Brazil and Latin American fellowships. A multimedia reporter and writer with two decades of experience across radio, television and print, she now focuses on early childhood, caregivers and reproductive rights. Caselli spent a decade as a foreign correspondent in Latin America, reporting for the BBC, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times and other outlets. In 2019, she began covering early childhood for The Correspondent, and in 2021 she launched The First 1,000 Days, a newsletter examining the foundational period at the beginning of life. She contributed a chapter to Unbias the News and produced a documentary on women’s football and gender inequality. Caselli has received fellowships from the International Women’s Media Foundation, the European Journalism Centre and the Solutions Journalism Network, and was a 2025–26 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
Mary Gearin is an award-winning journalist, presenter and broadcaster with more than three decades of experience in Australian and international news. An ABC News presenter and senior reporter, she has served as the network’s Europe correspondent and its first national sport correspondent and has reported on major global events including terrorist attacks in France, the eurozone crisis, four Olympic Games and two Commonwealth Games. Gearin has presented Melbourne’s 7 p.m. television news, hosted Drive on ABC Radio Melbourne and co-hosted ABC News Breakfast. Her reporting has ranged across international affairs, politics, sport, science and social issues, and she has worked extensively in both live and long-form formats. Based in Melbourne, Gearin also works as a moderator, master of ceremonies and public speaker, bringing her experience interviewing leaders, experts and people directly affected by major events to conversations on journalism and public life.
Nour Haydar is host and senior producer of Full Story, Guardian Australia’s award-winning daily news podcast. Before joining the Guardian in 2024, she was a federal political reporter in the Canberra press gallery, covering national politics for ABC News from Parliament House across television, radio and digital platforms. She also appeared as a fill-in presenter on ABC News Breakfast and Afternoon Briefing. Haydar began her ABC career as a cadet and previously worked as a producer at Sky News Australia. Her journalism has included reporting on politics, gender-based violence and state-sanctioned violence, and she has been recognised for her commitment to improving media coverage of complex and sensitive issues. In 2019, she received the inaugural Our Watch fellowship for reporting on violence against women. Haydar is also a director of the Walkley Foundation and a graduate of the University of Technology Sydney’s journalism program.
Jack Latimore is a Birpai–Thungutti writer, journalist and researcher based in Melbourne. He is an Enterprise Fellow for the First Nations Journalism Scholarship Project at the University of Melbourne. From 2021 to 2024, he was The Age’s first journalist dedicated to the Indigenous affairs round in the newspaper’s 170-year history. His previous roles include digital managing editor at NITV, columnist for Guardian Australia, correspondent for Koori Mail and daily editor at IndigenousX. Latimore’s journalism and essays have appeared in publications including Rolling Stone Australia, GQ, Meanjin, Griffith Review, SBS and the ABC. He created and produced NITV’s Take It Blak podcast and has contributed to projects aimed at strengthening First Nations participation and representation in Australian journalism. In 2016, he received the inaugural John Newfong Prize for reporting on Indigenous affairs and became the first Aboriginal journalist shortlisted for a Melbourne Press Club Quill Award.
Brett McLeod is an award-winning journalist and presenter who has spent decades covering some of the biggest stories in Australia and around the world. He is a reporter and presenter with the Nine Network and has twice served as Nine News’ Europe correspondent. He has reported from war zones including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Israel/Gaza, and was live on air as civilians were killed during Bangkok’s 2010 Red Shirt protests. Brett was one of the first journalists into Aceh after the devastating Boxing Day tsunami and was on the ground in Kinglake during Victoria’s Black Saturday fires. Other major stories he has covered include the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and the accession of King Frederik X and Queen Mary in Denmark. He reported from Buckingham Palace and Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace in the same month. Brett’s first job was at radio station 3AW, where he later became Drive host and News Director. Born in Melbourne, he studied media at RMIT, where he is now an Adjunct Professor in Journalism.
Cait McMahon OAM is founding director and consultant at the Centre for Journalism and Trauma Asia Pacific and a psychologist who has worked with journalists for more than 30 years. She founded Dart Centre Asia Pacific, now CJT Asia Pacific, in 2004 and helped build its regional work providing trauma-informed training and support to journalists and news organisations. McMahon conducted one of the earliest studies of journalists and trauma in 1993, and her subsequent doctoral research examined post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth among Australian journalists exposed to trauma. Her work has focused on psychological safety, ethical trauma reporting and the effects of repeated trauma exposure on media professionals. In 2016, she received the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to journalists’ mental health and wellbeing. McMahon is also a 2024 Churchill Fellow and an Honorary Fellow at Phoenix Australia at the University of Melbourne.
Ariel Ritchin is Senior Producer and Program Director at the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma, where he co-leads the Early Childhood Journalism Initiative with Irene Caselli. He develops programs, educational tools and resources for journalists and documentary storytellers working in high-stress, trauma-facing environments. His work focuses on the ethical and emotional dimensions of reporting on violence, conflict and public health, including how journalists can engage children, caregivers and other vulnerable communities responsibly while sustaining their own wellbeing. Ritchin is also a multimedia journalist and independent filmmaker. His forthcoming feature documentary examines community responses to toxic chemical exposure in upstate New York and is currently in post-production. He is a Logan Nonfiction Fellow, Humanity in Action Senior Fellow and Posse Foundation Scholar. Ritchin holds an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Middlebury College.
Wendy Tuohy is a journalist, editor and columnist with more than three decades of experience across print, digital, television and radio. She writes for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, with a particular focus on issues affecting women and girls, including gender equality, work, parenting, safety, health and social policy. Tuohy has held a range of reporting and editing roles at The Age, The Sunday Age, Sunday Life, Daily Life and the Herald Sun and has worked as a feature writer and digital lifestyle editor. She has also hosted programs on ABC Radio Melbourne and appeared regularly as a commentator on television current-affairs programs. Her journalism combines personal storytelling with reporting on structural inequality, bringing attention to the experiences of families, working mothers and people navigating violence, discrimination and mental-health challenges. She is also an experienced moderator and interviewer.