Who We Are - Prism

We are a community of journalists, truth-tellers, organizers, and justice seekers committed to delivering in-depth and thought-provoking news and analysis.

Prism is an independent and nonprofit news outlet led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice. Together, our journalists go where justice requires.

Activists, thought leaders, decision-makers, and all those who believe in justice for all come to Prism for deep reporting and honest insights on the most pressing injustices of our time—delivered through the lens of those who are most impacted.

Our Team

Alexandra Martinez | Senior News Reporter

Alexandra (she/her) is an award-winning, Cuban-American writer whose reporting spans such topics as immigration, the affordable housing crisis, and art-washing, and appears in VICE, Observer, Catapult magazine, CNN, and others. She received a B.A in Film Studies from Columbia University and has worked on documentary post-production teams as well as prison reentry programs in New York and Miami. She is based in Miami where she lives with her young daughter and enjoys tending to her native pine rockland garden. | @alex__mar

Ashton Lattimore | Editor-in-Chief

Ashton (she/her) is an accomplished writer and editor—and recovering lawyer—whose work focuses on the intersection of race, culture, and law. Her writing has been published by The Washington Post, Slate magazine, CNN, and others. In 2021, she was named a Maynard 200 fellow. She received a B.A. in English from Harvard College, an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She is the author of forthcoming debut novel THE FREE CITY (Ballantine Books), a work of historical fiction centered on Black women and abolition in nineteenth century Philadelphia. She lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. | @ashtonlattimore

Caitlin Gaffin | Chief Operating Officer

Caitlin (she/they) is a nonprofit strategy and operations leader and reproductive health, rights, and justice activist whose work focuses on rethinking the traditional ways in which we organize and build power. As a consultant, they’ve helped grassroots groups, national nonprofits, and congressional candidates be effective leaders in their fields and communities. They are a founding co-director of Holler Health Justice, a racial, economic, and reproductive justice nonprofit and abortion fund in Appalachia. They reside in their home state of West Virginia.

Carolyn Copeland | News Editor

Carolyn (she/her) is a passionate journalist and broadcasting professional with more than a decade of diverse experience in print and broadcast media. Her writing has been published by The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, HuffPost, POPSUGAR, and others. She spent several years as a television news writer and radio news talk show producer. A lifelong “theater geek,” she is a member of the board of directors for San Francisco Playhouse. She is a self-described “news junkie” who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their chubby pug, Muffin. | @Carolyn_Copes

Kimberly Rooney 高小荣 | Copy Editor

Kimberly (they/them) is a Chinese-American adoptee from Jiangsu Province based in Pittsburgh. They were the fall 2020 City Books Writer in Residence, and they continue to write about racial, adoptee, and queer identities. Their writing has appeared in Waxwing Magazine, Chestnut Review, The Offing, and more. They received a B.Phil. from the University of Pittsburgh for their thesis exploring racial identity formation in Chinese-American adoptees. They enjoy crocheting, calligraphy, and cuddling with their cat Toaster. | @kimlypso

Kyubin Kim | Social Media Specialist

Kyubin (she/her) is a writer and social media specialist based in New York. She received her B.A. from Bowdoin College in English and Creative Writing where she wrote her thesis on Korean American affect and served as editor-in-chief of The Foundationalist literary journal. Previously, she has worked as a copy editor for The New Republic and helmed social media projects at The Los Angeles Review of Books and Guernica Mag, where she is a Publishing Assistant. When she’s not telling stories in 280 characters, she’s probably caught in the deep throes of internet subcultures.

Lara Witt | Editorial Director

Lara (she/they) is an award-winning writer and editor. Their journalism career started at the Philadelphia CityPaper and the Philadelphia Daily News. Lara also freelanced for national publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Teen Vogue before joining Wear Your Voice magazine as an editor and reshaping the publication to focus on pop culture and politics through a radical lens centering the voices of LGBTQIA+ Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). As the Editorial Director of Prism, their goal is to provide platforms for marginalized voices and to reshape the landscape of media altogether.

Ray Levy Uyeda | Staff Features Reporter

Ray is a writer and poet based in the Bay Area, living on unceded Ohlone land. Prior to joining Prism, Ray worked as a freelance journalist, writing about reproductive, climate, and food justice for publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, and Yes! Magazine, among others. Ray’s journalism is grounded in service of the ultimate goal of liberation, and informed by projects like Media 2070’s essay on media reparations. Outside of the office, Ray reads poetry submissions and writes poetry reviews for a number of literary magazines, hikes the Bay Area’s redwood trails, and cooks as much delicious food as possible. | @raylevyuyeda

Rikki Li | Developmental Editor

Rikki (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based writer, editor, and graphic designer whose works often revolve around themes of food, cultural identity, and queerness. She received her B.A. in English Writing and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and her M.S. in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School. Rikki believes that to be a writer is to see, feel, and experience widely; before Prism, she explored careers ranging from teaching at Disney to science editing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her essays have been featured in Under the Gum Tree, Forbes & Fifth, Moly Review, and more. In her free time, she can be found baking desserts for Instagram and caring for her beloved monstera plant, Sophie. | @writtenbyrikki

Saba Keramati | Operations Manager

Saba (she/her) is a writer and nonprofit professional focused on social justice. Prior to joining Prism, she worked in racial and reproductive justice. Her creative work focuses on racial hybridity and exploring racial, body, and language consciousness. She believes in the power of storytelling to shift dominant narratives and create change. She is the poetry editor at Sundog Lit and also works as a teaching artist. Saba is from California, and currently lives in Michigan. | @sabzi_k

Shabnam Banerjee-McFarland | Audience Director

Shabnam (she/her) is a marketer, editor, and producer who has worked in independent media aimed at providing tools, resources, and frameworks that support movement-building. As an editor, she has worked with New York Times bestselling authors, speakers, and activists on books and digital products around intersectionality, racial and gender justice, decolonization, identity, and community organizing. Most recently, she joined Odom Media Management as an associate literary agent. She received a B.A. from University of California, Berkeley and M.A. from Columbia University in American Studies. She currently lives in Oakland, California. | @shabnamsheulee

Shirley Vilca | Development Director

Shirley (she/her) is a seasoned nonprofit professional working toward advancing causes that allow for thriving communities. Her diverse background includes working with refugee youth, incarcerated youth, and LGBTQ+ youth, as well as advocating for education equity and LGBTQ+ literature access in schools. Prior to Prism, she worked in development for Rock the Vote. She received a B.A. from the Evergreen State College and M.A. in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Antioch University. She resides in Joshua Tree, California. | @theshirleyvilca

Tamar Sarai | Staff Features Reporter

Tamar (she/her) is passionate about narrative writing and firmly believes that story sharing and truth-telling play a powerful role in changing hearts, minds, and ultimately the lived realities of communities across the world. Her reporting focuses on race, culture, and the criminal legal system. Prior to Prism, Tamar was a criminal justice researcher at Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. She received a B.A. in Sociology and Africana Studies from Wellesley College and M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. Originally from Brooklyn, she currently resides in the New York neighborhood of West Harlem. | @bytamarsarai

Tina Vásquez | Editor-at-Large

Tina (she/her) is a movement journalist with more than a decade of experience reporting on immigration, reproductive injustice, gender, food, labor, and culture. Her writing has been published by The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR, and Playboy. She is a 2021 McGraw Center Fellow reporting on back wages owed to migrant farmworkers. She serves on the board of Press On, a Southern journalism collective that strengthens and expands the practice of journalism in service of liberation. Tina splits her time between her family in Southeast Los Angeles and her home in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina. | @TheTinaVasquez

Yashwina Canter | Community Engagement Editor

Yashwina (she/they) is a publicist and digital strategist committed to an equitable digital future for indie media. They specialize in growing engaged audiences for marginalized creators, whether in publishing (where they’ve worked with National Book Award finalists, MacArthur Genius Grant recipients, and New York Times bestsellers) or in traditional marketing/PR (where they’ve worked with start-ups, nonprofits, podcasts, and award-winning major indie media outlets). After receiving a B.A. in English from Oxford University and M.A. in Publishing Media from Oxford Brookes, she returned to the United States to put down roots in Portland, Oregon. | @yashwinacanter