Meet our 2025 fellows cohort!
Plus, we're ISO a safety net storyteller, and I drop some personal news.
With a media landscape getting turned upside down daily, an exodus of talented journalists from billionaire-owned legacy news outlets, and headlines already watering down fascist displays from day one of Trump 2.0, we are more dedicated than ever at ChangeWire to telling the stories of the real issues facing real people and motivating them to take action in their communities.
So despite the deluge of bad news, I’m excited and hopeful to introduce our 2025 ChangeWire fellows cohort. Our writing and multimedia fellows each bring a unique perspective that needs to be amplified in this moment.
You’ll get deep dives from a Civil Rights leader in Kentucky and an investigative reporter from the Arizona borderlands. You’ll learn from Black women from the Midwest — one a chef and podcaster, and one an expert at combining research and visual storytelling. And you’ll be moved with pieces from our childcare storyteller in New York: A former nanny and currently the first Children’s Rights doctoral candidate.
Our new fellows will marry their personal experiences coming from low-income and working class backgrounds with the experiences of directly-impacted people and organizers from across the country, to tell the full story of the movements to abolish poverty, fight the billionaire’s economy, and build a people’s economy driven by care.
Meet our 2025 cohort:
Terrance Sullivan (he/him) is a social and racial justice advocate living in Kentucky. He is the Racial Justice Director of Amnesty International USA. Terrance was raised in Madisonville, Kentucky. He credits growing up as a poor black kid in a small white town as the reason he took on the role as ED of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. While in office, he launched a weekly radio show and podcast called We & You to discuss civil rights, social justice, and other equity issues. Some of his recent work includes, Roads and Race: How the Highway System Symbolizes Racial Justice in America, and Inside Louisville jail, not yet guilty: Who pays your bills while you wait to see a judge? Subscribe to his Substack: About That Tho.
Gabb Schivone (they/them/any) is a working-class writer and investigative reporter originally from the Arizona borderlands. Their writings, which span memoir, investigative reporting, and fiction, have been published in outlets such as Slate, The New York Review of Books, Mother Jones, The Intercept, The Florida Review, Thriller Magazine, The Nib, and more. They recently completed a 2024 PEN America Emerging Voices fellowship. When they're not racing to pitch and complete freelance news investigations to keep the lights on, you can either find them writing fiction, frequenting their local indie movie theater, or playing futból on a queer soccer team.
Natasha Bailey (she/her) is a chef, mentor, advocate, teacher and podcast host living in Kansas City, Missouri with her husband and five children. After becoming a holistic health practitioner, she graduated from culinary school. She saw that serving food made from fresh, quality ingredients can change how people feel for the better — but too many people don't have access to it. As head chef for Thelma's, Kansas City's only "pay-it-forward kitchen," she puts fresh, wholesome meals directly into the hands of community members from every economic background, and she trains incoming recruits to rejoin the culinary workforce. And through nonprofit work, she advocates for equitable foodways and access to early childhood care. Natasha is the co-writer and voice of Hungry for MO, a seasonal podcast sponsored by The University of Missouri.
Nateya Taylor (she/her) is a multimedia storyteller based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As an advocate for racial equity, health equity, and Black liberation, she intersects research with visual storytelling to interrogate the anti-blackness endemic in our social structures and reveal the multifacetedness of Blackness. Her master’s thesis, Black Autonomy as a Form of Resistance and a Symbol of Rebellion, is an interdisciplinary study that explores how two majority Black communities in the Midwest practiced resistance through Black autonomous practices in response to racial discrimination during the Great Migration. Nateya is also the founder of Naesthetycs, a multimedia production company that uses authentic storytelling and aesthetics as a catalyst to inspire empathy, ignite activism, and lead to more equitable futures.
Val Weisler (she/her) is our childcare storyteller — an activist, educator, childcare provider, and the first American doctoral candidate in Children’s Rights, living in New York. At age 14, she founded The Validation Project, launching a global youth empowerment movement. Now at Queen’s University Belfast, Val’s pioneering research explores a child’s right to seek, receive, and share information within the United States — the only nation yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Her study breaks new ground as the first to involve young children as co-researchers, redefining how child-friendly material is created and shared. Outside of work, Val enjoys exploring Prospect Park with her dog, Howdy, perfecting her egg cream recipe, and sampling Brooklyn’s breakfast spots with her partner.
Coming Soon: Safety Net Storyteller
The new administration and Congress have threatened to cut safety net programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Head Start and more, in order to pay for more tax cuts for the ultra-rich. If they succeed, the impacts will be huge — both for the millions of Americans who rely on these programs and the overall economy.
In an effort to ensure that those people who will be most affected have their voices heard, we’ll be hiring an additional fellow in the next couple of weeks. Our safety net storyteller will be dedicated to telling the stories of those who depend on these benefits, and who plan to save and expand them in their states.
If you know someone who might be great for this role (maybe it’s you!), send us a note at changewire@communitychange.org.
One last thing
Some personal news! I am expecting my first child in just a few weeks. And thanks to Community Change’s generous parental leave policy, I’m looking forward to taking several months off to spend with my new little family. That means you’ll be hearing more from ChangeWire’s co-editor Cristina Rayas and our editorial fellow Emily Withnall. They’ll continue to offer you exclusive content monthly, spotlight the behind-the-scenes of how our fellows got their stories, and round up our favorite pieces from ChangeWire.org.
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