Sophia Ahmadi
Sophia Ahmadi covers Human Rights for Uptown Radio. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2016 with a degree in French and Spanish. Before moving to New York, she worked in radio for Monocle 24 in London on its morning news show, which covered international news and business. Find her on Instagram @sophia_c_ahmadi and on Twitter @AhmadiSophia
Email: scb2190@columbia.edu
Sophia Ahmadi
Sophia Ahmadi covers Human Rights for Uptown Radio. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2016 with a degree in French and Spanish. Before moving to New York, she worked in radio for Monocle 24 in London on its morning news show, which covered international news and business. Find her on Instagram @sophia_c_ahmadi and on Twitter @AhmadiSophia
Email: scb2190@columbia.edu
Cynthia Betubiza
Cynthia Betubiza is a NYC-based writer and journalist passionate about politics, labor, health equity, trans rights, the environment, social justice, and the arts. She is currently pursuing her M.S. at Columbia Journalism School, specializing in multimedia. Outside interests include Netflix cooking shows, music, movies, creative writing, anything having to do with the African continent, comedy, and podcasts that remind her that the world is still a beautiful place. Find her on Twitter @CynthiaBetubiza.
Email: cynthiabetubiza@gmail.com
Cynthia Betubiza
Cynthia Betubiza is a NYC-based writer and journalist passionate about politics, labor, health equity, trans rights, the environment, social justice, and the arts. She is currently pursuing her M.S. at Columbia Journalism School, specializing in multimedia. Outside interests include Netflix cooking shows, music, movies, creative writing, anything having to do with the African continent, comedy, and podcasts that remind her that the world is still a beautiful place. Find her on Twitter @CynthiaBetubiza.
Email: cynthiabetubiza@gmail.com
Alex Colletta
Alex Colletta covers education for Uptown Radio. Born and raised in California, Alex graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012 with a degree in English Literature. Before coming to Columbia Journalism School, he worked in marketing at a tech company in San Diego. In his free time, Alex enjoys getting outdoors, discovering new music, and working on creative projects with friends.
You can reach him at ajc2274@columbia.edu or on Twitter: @alexcolletta.
Alex Colletta
Alex Colletta covers education for Uptown Radio. Born and raised in California, Alex graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012 with a degree in English Literature. Before coming to Columbia Journalism School, he worked in marketing at a tech company in San Diego. In his free time, Alex enjoys getting outdoors, discovering new music, and working on creative projects with friends.
You can reach him at ajc2274@columbia.edu or on Twitter: @alexcolletta.
Sophia Ahmadi
Sophia Ahmadi covers Human Rights for Uptown Radio. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2016 with a degree in French and Spanish. Before moving to New York, she worked in radio for Monocle 24 in London on its morning news show, which covered international news and business. Find her on Instagram @sophia_c_ahmadi and on Twitter @AhmadiSophia
Email: scb2190@columbia.edu
Cynthia Betubiza
Cynthia Betubiza is a NYC-based writer and journalist passionate about politics, labor, health equity, trans rights, the environment, social justice, and the arts. She is currently pursuing her M.S. at Columbia Journalism School, specializing in multimedia. Outside interests include Netflix cooking shows, music, movies, creative writing, anything having to do with the African continent, comedy, and podcasts that remind her that the world is still a beautiful place. Find her on Twitter @CynthiaBetubiza.
Email: cynthiabetubiza@gmail.com
Alex Colletta
Alex Colletta covers education for Uptown Radio. Born and raised in California, Alex graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012 with a degree in English Literature. Before coming to Columbia Journalism School, he worked in marketing at a tech company in San Diego. In his free time, Alex enjoys getting outdoors, discovering new music, and working on creative projects with friends.
You can reach him at ajc2274@columbia.edu or on Twitter: @alexcolletta.
Sophia Ahmadi
Sophia Ahmadi covers Human Rights for Uptown Radio. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2016 with a degree in French and Spanish. Before moving to New York, she worked in radio for Monocle 24 in London on its morning news show, which covered international news and business. Find her on Instagram @sophia_c_ahmadi and on Twitter @AhmadiSophia
Email: scb2190@columbia.edu
2020 Staff
Megan Cattel
Megan Cattel covers immigration for Uptown Radio. After spending most of her life in Florida, she graduated from Fordham University with a degree in international relations in 2015. From there, she taught English at a school in Shanghai while writing about arts and culture for NeoCha, an online magazine. In her free time, she enjoys watching Mel Brooks films, listening to The Skating Lesson (the best figure skating podcast out there), and perusing through the Strand Book Store. You can see more of her work at megancattel.contently.com
or follow her on Twitter:
Brett Forrest
Brett Forrest covers arts and culture for Uptown Radio. He hails from the mountainous lands of faraway Colorado, where he hiked, snowboarded, and rock climbed his days away. Prior to Columbia, Brett helped launch a national TV show called "Daily Blast LIVE," where he was an on-air producer. He won a national Telly award for a segment he hosted. Prior to that, Brett worked in marketing at a Denver news station producing commercials. He graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011 with degrees in Film and Anthropology. His great loves are the outdoors, Chipotle, and Taylor Swift. Follow him on Twitter @brettforrest89 or Instagram @brettforrestofficial.
Sarah Gelbard
Sarah Gelbard covers science and the environment for Uptown Radio. Previously, she worked on rare disease and newborn screening efforts, in the Friedreich’s ataxia Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in women’s healthcare in Atlanta, and in water and sanitation research in Cambodia. She holds an undergraduate degree in literature from the University of Rochester and an advanced degree in public health from Emory University. She likes trees, books, bikes, very good dogs and bold reporting. You can find her @sarahgelbard on Instagram.
Tay Glass
Tay Glass is the transportation reporter for Uptown Radio. His fascination with all things transit stems from riding buses, subways and bikes in three big cities with three very different approaches to getting around town; Toronto, Tokyo, and now New York. Tay studied theater and biological engineering at York University in Canada. Before pursuing journalism, he worked as a children's entertainer and a karaoke vocalist in Japan.
Ciara Long
Ciara Long covers intellectual and cultural life for Uptown Radio. Prior to Columbia, she spent 3.5 years covering Brazil as a freelance reporter for outlets including Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor and Deutsche Welle. Originally from the UK, she speaks Portuguese, Spanish and French, and is currently specializing in investigative reporting via Columbia’s Stabile Center.
You can find her on Twitter: @CiaraReports.
Cecily Mauran
Cecily covers technology for Uptown Radio. Prior to Columbia, she worked in the startup world, helping to grow and develop socially-responsible businesses. This work led her to running workshops for women entrepreneurs in Chile, mentoring at an accelerator in Istanbul, and helping to launch one of the first co-work spaces in Myanmar. Her love of storytelling is what ultimately led her to journalism. When she isn't reporting, logging, or writing, you can find Cecily chasing seagulls at the beach with her dog Lola or dowsing everything in hot sauce. Twitter: @cecily_mauran
Lauren Peace
Lauren Peace covers New York state and city politics for Uptown Radio. She began her journalism career as a reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle/USA Today Network in Rochester, N.Y., where she covered suburban trends. Originally from West Virginia, much of Peace’s reporting explores inequality and perception attached to gender and place. Send her story tips at Lmp2207@columbia.edu.
Janmaris Perez
Janmaris Perez covers education for Uptown Radio. She is a full-time M.S. student at Columbia Journalism School. Her work has focused on the experiences of marginalized communities. Before coming to Columbia, she worked in the non-profit sector with a focus in higher education accessibility for first-generation and low-income students. She grew up in Miami before earning her bachelor’s degree at Florida State University in digital media and communication studies. You can find her on Twitter @janmaris_perez, or email her at jp4000@columbia.edu.
Emily Pisacreta
Emily Pisacreta covers business for Uptown Radio. A proud bridge and tunnel kid, she is passionate about New York stories of all kinds. Outside of Uptown Radio, her work has centered around health and social justice issues, appearing in Healthline, Rewire News, and Diabetes Voice. Until last August, Emily worked as a digital editor at Planned Parenthood Federation of American for several years, writing and editing web and social media content about sexual and reproductive health. In 2014, she and friends started a "radically uncurated" Brooklyn-based community radio station known as bel-air. She tweets sometimes: @emilypisacreta.
Aseem Shukla
Anya Schultz
Anya Schultz covers criminal justice for Uptown Radio. She grew up outside San Francisco and studied history at UC Berkeley. Before coming to Columbia Journalism School, Anya was an editor at The Daily Californian and interned at Slate and KQED News. She’s spent six summers living and working at a summer camp near Yosemite National Park. You can find her on Twitter at @anyaviolet or email her at avs2163@columbia.edu
Lucas Brady Woods covers healthcare for Uptown Radio. Medicine has always been a big part of his life. He learned a lot from his father, who is a pediatrician. Lucas is originally from Southern California, but has lived in New York City for over a decade, currently in Brooklyn with his pit-bull, Paco. He studied film and television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and worked as a film and video producer before pursuing journalism. Send tips to lucas.woods@columbia.edu. Twitter: @lucasinthewoods.
Lucas Brady Woods
Will Walkey
Will Walkey covers city services, including housing and government assistance, for Uptown Radio. Originally from Tacoma, Washington, he is a graduate of Colby College, where he majored in history and worked for the school’s newspaper and radio station. As a freelancer, he’s written on the travel desk at U.S. News & World Report, as well as for the New America Weekly, a newsletter at a D.C. think tank. Follow him on Twitter at @WillWalkey, or send him an email at wcw2121@columbia.edu.