Reporters Committee welcomes new staff, legal fellows and interns

We are thrilled to announce several new hires and fellows at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press who will work with us to defend the First Amendment, protect the newsgathering rights of journalists and improve access to public information. Learn more about those who have joined our team below.

In August, Josh Moore was promoted to legal clinics coordinator. In this role, Josh will collaborate with the law school clinic partners on legal programming, joint litigation initiatives, communications, administration and fundraising. Previously, Josh was the 2017-2018 Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Legal Fellow, where he worked on issues related to libel, privacy, confidentiality and newsgathering.

Anna Gutierrez comes to the Reporters Committee as communications coordinator and will focus on digital communications outreach and engagement. Before joining the Reporters Committee, Anna worked for the Society of Professional Journalists, where she managed and generated content for SPJ’s social media channels; wrote, designed and managed SPJ’s weekly and monthly newsletters; drafted and distributed press releases; and wrote for Quill magazine.

Melissa Wasser joins the Reporters Committee as a policy analyst responsible for communicating how government policies and practices affect newsgathering and the public’s ability to access information and highlighting the Reporters Committee’s work across all branches and levels of government to protect and strengthen press freedom. She will also serve as the coalition manager for the News Media for Open Government Coalition. Prior to joining the Reporters Committee, Melissa was a Law Fellow for the American Constitution Society.

Linda Moon will focus on free press, national security and surveillance policy issues as the Reporters Committee’s Stanton Foundation Free Press/National Security Legal Fellow. Previously, Linda clerked for the Honorable Peggy Kuo in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and was a legal fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program. She is a graduate of New York University and Columbia Law School.

Daniel Jeon comes to the Reporters Committee as the 2018-2019 Jack Nelson-Dow Jones Foundation Legal Fellow. In this role, he will assist with litigation, policy and amicus work primarily around state and federal freedom of information laws while also helping reporters and news organizations with public records requests. Daniel graduated from New York University School of Law in 2018, where he was an online editor for the New York University Law Review.

Lindsie Trego will focus on libel, privacy, confidentiality and newsgathering as the 2018-2019 Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Legal Fellow. Lindsie graduated in 2018 from the University of North Carolina’s joint degree program in media law, earning both her J.D. and master’s degree in mass communication. At UNC, she was also the symposium editor for the First Amendment Law Review and published a note on expansion of the government speech doctrine on college campuses.

Hannah Bassett and Jake Flanagin join us as the first recipients of our new Yelp Fellowship. They will focus on policy research around the implications of emerging technology and legal issues on press freedom.

Prior to joining the Reporters Committee, Hannah was a senior associate at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a global health nonprofit dedicated to expanding vaccine access and uptake. At Sabin, she worked with journalists around the world to help inform their coverage of immunization issues and wrote extensively for Sabin’s executive team and website.

Jake comes to us having previously served as a law clerk in the Judiciary Committee office of U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and a legal intern with the national political advocacy department of the American Civil Liberties Union. 

The Reporters Committee also welcomes two interns for the fall 2018 semester:

Audrey Greene joins as the fall legal intern for the Reporters Committee, where she will work on a range of projects including updating the police body camera footage access map and election law guide. Audrey is currently in her second year at The George Washington University Law School.

Evan Popp is the journalism and communications intern, and he will assist the communications team with outreach and storytelling about the Reporters Committee’s legal work. Previously, Evan was an intern at The Progressive magazine, where he wrote online and print stories as well as copy-edited and fact-checked content.