Meet the team members of Capital B, including leadership, editing, reporting, revenue, audience, and operations staff.
Chauncey Alcorn is Capital B Atlanta’s state and local politics reporter. He previously worked as a staff writer at CNN Business, the Daily Mail, and Mic. He has also written for theGrio, Fortune.com, Vice News, Salon, and the New York Daily News, among other major publications.
Dev Allen is a social video producer at Capital B, joining the Audience Team with a strong on-camera presence and engaging editing skills. He combines his newsroom experience from NowThis News, his role as a video producer for Black music at AFROPUNK, and his grassroots video work at Color Of Change into a singular, impactful presence at Capital B.
Javonte Anderson is Capital B Gary’s editor. He started his career at his hometown newspaper, the Post-Tribune, which covers northwest Indiana. After the Post-Tribune, Anderson served as a breaking news and religion reporter at the Chicago Tribune. Most recently, he was the racism and history reporter at USA Today. Anderson is a graduate of Indiana University–Bloomington, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history.
Jenae Barnes is the health and environment reporter for Capital B Gary. Barnes is a 2023 Wake Forest University Environmental and Epistemic Justice Fellow. She has served as a global affairs intern at ABC News and has produced and written pieces featured on Good Morning America, Blavity, and Medium. Barnes earned a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School and a bachelor’s degree in global affairs from George Mason University.
Angela Burt-Murray is editor of Capital B Atlanta. As the former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, Angela oversaw the magazine and web site where she published award-winning investigative features on sex trafficking, gun violence, police brutality and the HIV crisis while also producing books and live events. She also previously served as vice president and editorial director for Viacom’s BET.com and TheGrio.com, deputy editor at Conde Nast’s Glamour magazine and interim general manager for Magic Johnson’s Aspire cable network. She’s also written three books that were optioned for television and has written and produced ten movies that have premiered on Netflix, BET, OWN and Lifetime.
Christina Carrega is the national criminal justice reporter at Capital B. Christina has covered the criminal legal system for the New York Daily News, New York Post, ABC News, and CNN. Away from work, Christina volunteers at Princess Chambers Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting underprivileged youth, and regularly makes guest appearances at university-level journalism classes. She’s a first-generation-born American and was raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Neil Cornish is Capital B’s copy chief. He has been a copy editor, reporter, and page designer over his 30-year journalism career. Neil comes to Capital B from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he was a copy editor and wires editor. Prior to that, he worked at the former St. Petersburg Times in Florida, the News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware, and the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia.
Calvin Davis is Capital B Gary’s government and politics reporter. His journalism career began in Northwest Indiana as a sportswriter for The Times of Northwest Indiana, after which he covered hip-hop for XXL and numerous online publications during hip-hop’s blog era. He covered Chicago’s City Council as a 2017 City Bureau Fellow, and most recently spent three years as a media consultant with the city of Gary’s Common Council.
Antonella DeCicci is Capital B’s development officer. Previously, Antonella worked as a communicator, fundraiser, and researcher in the democracy nonprofit sector. They also facilitate and teach Intergroup Dialogue and restorative practices at the high school and university levels. Antonella is a graduate of Vassar College and was a Fulbright grantee in Italy.
Sade Fantroyal, the chief of staff at Capital B, is a seasoned professional with over a decade of experience in nonprofit operations, executive and board management, and staff relations. Her expertise in these areas has been instrumental in her previous role as a manager of administration and development for AccessMatters, a sexual and reproductive health nonprofit focused on protecting, expanding, and enhancing equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care and information for all people.
Tyra Green is Capital B’s development coordinator. She’s a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame, with a master’s in nonprofit administration from its business school. She was also a graduate research assistant and master of development practice intern at the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Green received her undergraduate degree from Spelman College.
Kuwilileni Hauwanga is Capital B’s deputy director of audience and innovation. Hauwanga is an accomplished multimedia storyteller who comes to Capital B from the Brookings Institution, where she most recently served as Director of Multimedia, crafting innovative strategies to enhance the organization’s digital presence. Prior to Brookings, Hauwanga was Director of Video at IndieWire, launched award-winning series at Businessinsider.com, and was a founding producer of Cocoa Butter, BuzzFeed’s Black content vertical.
Ann Hill Bond is Capital B Atlanta’s community engagement editor. She is a Jamaican-born and Ghana-raised journalist with deep southern Black roots who enjoys the influence of Atlanta. Hill Bond worked with children and families for 12 years before starting her career in community journalism in 2016, writing about Black history. She hopes to encourage her community to continue sharing and scribing our stories through her work.
Alyssa Johnson is Capital B Atlanta’s enterprise reporter. She is from Alpharetta, Georgia, and a graduate from Northwestern University. She joins Capital B from the Miami Herald, where she covered politics and conducted investigations. Before her time at the Herald, she was an engagement reporting fellow at ProPublica and an intern at People magazine.
Mark S. Luckie is a digital strategist, author, and the director of innovation and audience engagement at Capital B. He has led media partnerships for some of the most influential social platforms in the world, including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Mark has also led digital initiatives for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The Washington Post, the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Los Angeles Times, and Entertainment Weekly. Mark is a GLAAD Media Award nominee, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a part of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist team for Local Reporting. He was twice been named by The Root as one of the top 100 most influential African-Americans. Mark is a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University and the University of California, Berkeley where he received his master’s degree in journalism.
Adam Mahoney is Capital B’s national climate and environment reporter. Before joining Capital B, he covered environmental justice on Grist Magazine’s Investigations and Accountability team. His work has also appeared in places such as The Associated Press, Dissent Magazine, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. He is from Wilmington, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Dante Miller is the community listening ambassador for Capital B Atlanta. Previously, Dante was the community engagement producer for WFAE, Charlotte, North Carolina’s NPR news station, where she produced audience-driven projects, organized public events, and collaborated with local partners to ensure journalism was accessible, inclusive, and grounded in community needs. She has also reported for QCity Metro and Charlotte Media Group.
Akoto Ofori-Atta is co-founder and chief audience officer of Capital B. She was previously managing editor at The Trace, where she was responsible for the award-winning newsroom’s partnerships, special projects, and editorial operations. She previously held positions as senior editor at Essence magazine and associate editor at The Root, and is a 2015 John S. Knight journalism fellow.
Dalila-Johari Paul is Capital B’s national editor. She comes from CNN, where she most recently led the race and equality team for the digital team. The veteran journalist also previously oversaw the network’s overnight news coverage for digital. The New York City native loves to build and uplift teams. She’s held multiple editorial positions at the Guardian US, the Star-Ledger in New Jersey, and the Hartford Courant in Connecticut. Her first reporting assignments started as a high school student covering homelessness and race relations in NYC’s five boroughs.
Derreka Rollins is Capital B Gary’s community engagement editor and a native of the city. Derreka started her career in 2015 aschairwoman of Miller Spotlight, a grassroots organization for the Miller neighborhood. She later became a founding member of the nonprofit Building Leaders Advancing Community Knowledge (BLACK), where she led the efforts of civic engagement for the local elections in 2019. She also served on the city’s Historic Preservation Commission where she was the youngest commissioner.
Victoria St. Martin is the deputy national editor at Capital B News. During a 20-year career in journalism, she has worked in a half dozen newsrooms, including The Washington Post, The Newark Star-Ledger, and The New Orleans Times-Picayune. A journalism educator, she has taught multimedia reporting at the University of Notre Dame and Temple University. She co-directed the Dow Jones News Fund summer internship training workshop at Temple. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and earned a master’s degree at American University.
Rob Smith Capital B’s newsletter editor. He previously worked as a senior research editor at TED and as managing director for digital publication The Pudding, where he led the development of experimental stories about culture and data. A former librarian and art historian, he is based in Brooklyn, NY.
Alecia Taylor is the national education reporter at Capital B. Previously, Alecia covered local government for The Kansas City Star and education for the Chronicle of Higher Education. She is a proud alumna of Howard University and a 2023 White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar.
Brandon Tensley is Capital B’s national politics reporter. Previously, he was a national political writer at CNN, where he covered the intersection of culture, identity, and politics. Prior to that, he was a co-host of Slate’s Outward podcast and a contributing writer at Pacific Standard. Brandon was also a Luce Scholar in Thailand and a Fulbright Scholar in Germany.
Madeline Thigpen is the criminal justice reporter at Capital B Atlanta. Previously, she covered education at The Atlanta Voice as a Report for America corps member. Madeline is a graduate of American University. She has also covered education and local politics for TAPinto SOMA, Elizabeth, and Roselle/Roselle Park.
Kelly Virella is Capital B’s executive editor. Virella joins Capital B from The New York Times, where she spent the past seven years and has worked in a variety of roles, most recently for the international desk as the editor of the Canada region. At The Times, she contributed to the package of reporting about #MeToo that won a Pulitzer Award for Public Service in 2018. She was also one of the editors who oversaw The Times’ reporting on the reparations that Haiti paid to France. She edited a story about corruption allegations against a Haitian senator that was part of a package nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022. Virella has also worked at the Nation Institute, where she launched and directed the Ida B. Wells Fellowship, an initiative to diversify investigative reporting. She has also worked as an award-winning investigative reporter at publications such as City Limits and the Chicago Reporter, and as a media entrepreneur.
Alexandra Watts is an audience engagement producer at Capital B. She previously did podcasting and audio at The Arizona Republic. During her time in public radio, she won a Regional Edward R. Murrow award and partnered with a public library system for a community engagement initiative. Her work has been featured on NPR, Sirius XM’s POTUS Politics and in USA Today. She is an alum of NPR’s Next Generation Radio program.
Gillian White is the chief revenue officer at Capital B. Gillian was formerly a managing editor at the Atlantic where she oversaw podcasts, editorial live events, special projects, and interactive storytelling. White has also worked as an editor and columnist at Kiplinger. She’s a member of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s board of directors.
Lauren Williams is chief executive officer and co-founder of Capital B. Before starting Capital B, she was senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Vox, where oversaw all editorial and business operations. She also held the positions of executive editor and managing editor there. Prior to Vox, she was an editor at Mother Jones and The Root. Her first journalism job was in local news at the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia. She serves on the boards for the International Women’s Media Foundation and the Associated Press Foundation for Journalism.
Jai Winston is Capital B’s vice president of local strategy & growth and former Knight Foundation director, where he led multimillion-dollar investments revitalizing St. Paul, Minnesota, and advancing entrepreneurs of color. He previously worked at Ariel Investments in the office of the chairman & co-CEO, focusing on financial literacy and minority entrepreneurship. He chairs Illinois Humanities and serves on the board of the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation.
Aallyah Wright is the national rural issues reporter at Capital B. Previously, Aallyah covered rural affairs for Stateline and reported on education and government for Mississippi Today. She is a 2022 Maynard 200 Fellow, 2020 Mississippi Humanities Council Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award Recipient and 2018 Educating Children in Mississippi Fellow at the Hechinger Report.