WNYC Announces New Early-Career Fellows, Supported by The Tow Foundation
Read more in this note from Carla Wills, Community Partnerships & Training Editor; Brooks Brunson, Audience Editor; and Stephanie Clary, Editor in Chief
We’re thrilled to announce that Mariana Navarrete Villegas and Maddie Bristowe will be joining the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom on June 16 as part of our two-year Early-Career fellowship program, supported by a grant from The Tow Foundation.
Mariana will join the Community Partnerships Desk as a Tow Fellow and associate producer, supporting our work to foster meaningful relationships with communities across the New York City region through events, collaborations and reporting that is amplified across WNYC and Gothamist’s broadcast and digital platforms. Reporting to Community Partnerships & Training Editor Carla Wills, Mariana will play an important role in helping us develop and execute our upcoming series of community conversations on affordability across the five boroughs.
As a bilingual multimedia journalist, Mariana views journalism and storytelling as a vital bridge to connection. Prior to joining WNYC, Mariana was the Hartford Community Engagement Reporter for The Connecticut Mirror, where she hosted listening sessions, managed a text-based newsletter, and reported on housing, education and community care in English and Spanish. Mariana has also worked as the community engagement and video assistant for the Queens-based news outlet Epicenter-NYC. No stranger to audio storytelling, she also interned for Al Jazeera English’s daily podcast “The Take,” and hosted “La Chismesita,” a community radio show archiving oral histories of women immigrant leaders in New York. She is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism with a master’s in Bilingual Journalism.
Maddie is joining the Digital News and Audience Team as a Tow Fellow and associate producer with a focus on producing, packaging and presenting WNYC and Gothamist’s original journalism and engaging live radio programming for digital audiences. Reporting to Audience Editor Brooks Brunson, Maddie will work closely with WNYC’s local show teams, including The Brian Lehrer Show, All Of It with Alison Stewart, NYC Now, and local editions of Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Previously, Maddie has produced and managed multi‑platform digital content for WYPR, Baltimore’s NPR affiliate. She began her public radio career at Fordham University at WFUV, where she produced “Cityscape,” a weekly arts and culture show exploring the people, places and spirit of New York City. She also produced two award‑winning audio documentaries during her time at WFUV. Prior to that, she was an intern at MSNBC, where she supported the breaking news desk and the primetime shows’ social media accounts. She graduated from Fordham with a degree in communications and emerging media.
We are grateful for The Tow Foundation’s generous support, which enables WNYC to provide exceptional, hands-on professional experience to early-career reporters, helping to foster future generations of public service journalists. The Tow Foundation is a Connecticut-based family foundation working to realize a just, healthy, and vibrant nation where individuals and communities thrive.