Meet the Team

Leah Clapman

Founder, Executive Director

Leah Clapman created Student Reporting Labs in 2009 as an experiment to engage middle and high school students with current events and reimagine public media for tweens and teens. Under her leadership, SRL has grown from 6 pilot sites to over 10,000 educators with schools in every state and 90 countries. Leah has developed education products such as PBS NewsHour Classroom for teachers, Teachers Lounge and “Making the Grade,” a weekly focus on education issues, policy and practice. A Princeton graduate, she serves on the Education Writers Association journalism advisory, 826 National Board, Education Innovators and Library of Congress TPS council.

Christine Zirneklis

Director, Communications and Partnerships

Victor Fernandez

Senior Director, Youth Media Program

Victor is the Senior Director of Student Reporting Labs’ Youth Media Program. He makes sure that student pieces are ready for publishing on our website, social media platforms, and on the NewsHour broadcast. He gives technical feedback and detailed demonstrations on how to polish your video in the post production stage. He recently received the 2018 Instructional Media – Engaged Learning award from the National Educational Telecommunications Association where he was the editor for the SRL Level Up tutorial series. Victor worked as a Career and Technical Education teacher for 15 years in Miami-Dade County Public Schools where he prepared students for the Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop certifications. What Victor enjoys most about his job is visiting SRL schools and providing students with hand-on learning experiences. During his time off work he serves as the Student Production Awards Coordinator at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Suncoast Chapter and participates as a judge on college and high school film festivals.

Rawan Elbaba

Digital Producer

Rawan is a Digital Producer at the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs. She leads digital content strategy and manages SRL’s social media platforms. Rawan received her master’s degree in journalism at Georgetown University. She was born and raised in the Washington, DC area to Lebanese parents and is a first-generation American.

Marie Cusick

Editorial Director

Emily Anne Tkaczibson

Director, Operations & Development

Becky Wandel

Youth Media Producer

Anurag Papolu

Graphic Designer

Anurag is a multimedia producer and designer. In his previous role as the multimedia editor at The Conversation, he worked with scientists and scholars around the country to help them communicate their research through text, graphics, and video. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including The Washington Post, NBC, The Daily Beast, and Fast Company. He loves all things visual art and likes to learn and experiment with new creative techniques.

Emily Hope Dobkin

Senior Manager of Community Engagement

Emily’s role is to strengthen and build community on StoryMaker, ensuring the best possible user experience and teacher engagement. Emily comes to Student Reporting Labs after several years of connecting people to meaningful experiences within museums, marketplaces, libraries, after-school programs, cultural organizations, and during the pandemic: zoom rooms worldwide via The Meet Cart. In everything she does, Emily cares deeply about creating exploratory experiences that nourish curiosity, celebrate all voices, and spark storytelling. In her 14+ years working in the realms of education and informal learning spaces, she’s launched everything from teen programs that focus on arts for social change to her own platform called Betterish. Denver Westword has identified Emily as a “people person extraordinaire,” and she has further been dubbed a bridge builder, a connector, a joiner, and a facilitator of joy. For such reasons, she’s committed to dressing up as a Connectectasaurus Rex during Halloween season year after year. Rooted in east coast upbringings, expanded by some inspiring years of seafaring adventures along the Pacific coast, Emily now resides on a tree-lined street in Denver, Colorado overlooking the Rocky Mountains.

Neianne Sambile

Associate, Grants and Data Projects

Caroline Frentz

Associate Producer, Social Media

Caroline is an associate social media producer at the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs. In her role, she helps manage SRL’s social media platforms. Whether through impactful vertical video or a cutting meme, she believes in the power of digital media to connect and inform audiences. Previously, she was at Washingtonian magazine where she managed social media accounts for an audience of over 800,000.

She received her bachelors degree in journalism from George Washington University where she developed a passion for digital storytelling and advocacy journalism. When she’s not at work, she can be found walking her bratty French bulldog or reading a novel about feminine rage.

Wyatt Mayes

Youth Media Audio Producer

Wyatt is a Youth Media Audio Producer for Student Reporting Labs. Growing up in New Jersey, Wyatt touched his first camera and editing software in 7th grade under the tutelage of a now lifelong mentor. Little did he know that he would pursue media and content creation for the rest of his life. Wyatt went into digital media after exploring TV, film, radio, and a little newspaper writing in college. He has had professional stops at MSNBC, PBS NewsHour, CBS News, and The Washington Post where he again touched every aspect of the digital landscape he could while leveraging production projects from every major social media platform. Wyatt now helps students pursue their production projects with the hopes of having the same influence on a few just as his former teacher had with him.

Justin Rhodes

Youth Media Producer (Curriculum)

Justin’s zeal for public media is only matched by his profound dedication to educating and mentoring the next generation. As the Youth Media Producer (Curriculum) at PBS News Student Reporting Labs, he doesn’t just teach; he immerses himself in the creative journeys of students and educators, steering them through the intricate process of crafting impactful broadcast journalism content. Over the years, Justin’s unwavering commitment has not only garnered him prestigious accolades like Emmy, W3, and Telly Awards, but more importantly, it has allowed him to profoundly influence the narrative skills and critical thinking abilities of emerging storytellers. For Justin, true fulfillment comes from seeing these young voices flourish, confidently taking on the world’s stages to share their own stories.

Anthony Payne

Communications Associate

Anthony is the Student Report Labs’ Communications Associate. He helps grow the SRL community by scouting new opportunities to increase the visibility of student work. He also writes SRL’s various newsletters and blog posts! Born and raised in Laurel, Maryland, Anthony graduated from the University of Southern California in 2023. He is a big believer in the importance of community and thinks everyone should know what’s going on with theirs. He’s proud to be part of a team dedicated to providing media resources for young storytellers and teachers!