Staff & Contributors

Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm is the Executive Director of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, which operates The Maine Monitor.

Micaela joined MCPIR/The Maine Monitor after retiring as a Senior Foreign Service officer. Micaela represented the United States around the world for 26 years, leading U.S. diplomatic teams, and advancing U.S. principles of democratic governance, most importantly, the importance of a free and vibrant press.

Micaela spent most of her career in the Middle East and Southeast Europe and served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Skopje, North Macedonia, and at the U.S. embassies in Zagreb, Cairo, Baghdad, Tunis and Kathmandu and at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, where she led the Public Affairs Section and was the Consulate Spokesperson for four years.

Micaela holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Brown University and a Master’s Degree in National Security Studies from the National War College. A native of southern New England, Micaela, her husband Todd, and three children have called Maine home since 2017. When not avidly devouring news reporting, you might find her and her family sailing in Penobscot Bay, hitting the ski slopes across Maine, or hiking new paths with their two rescue dogs.

She can be reached at micaela@themainemonitor.org.

Veteran journalist David Dahl serves as the editor of The Maine Monitor, overseeing its daily operations.

David was most recently a deputy managing editor at the Boston Globe, where he had responsibility for front-page stories, was involved in strategic planning and personnel matters and was part of a team that repositioned the Globe for its digital future. He had previously served as the paper’s political editor, supervising coverage of state politics, and as the regional editor, overseeing a network of hyperlocal news sites.

Before joining the Globe, David worked for 20 years at the St. Petersburg Times, including several years as its Washington bureau chief. He was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and a fellow at the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia University. He has also been an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College, Boston College and Boston University.

David and his wife, Kathy, enjoy tennis and kayaking at their home in Friendship. They have two adult children.

David can be reached at david@themainemonitor.org.

Samantha Hogan focuses on government accountability projects for The Maine Monitor. Samantha joined the newsroom as its first full-time reporter in 2019 with Report for America.

Samantha was named the 2021 Maine’s Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association, and spent 2020 reporting on Maine’s court system through the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.

She previously worked for The Frederick News-Post, covering state politics, agriculture, the environment and energy, and interned twice for The Washington Post.

She can be contacted at samantha@themainemonitor.org.

Kate Cough covers energy and the environment as a 2021 Report for America corps member. She was previously a reporter for The Ellsworth American before becoming the inaugural digital media strategist for The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander.

Kate graduated with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Magna Cum Laude from Bryn Mawr College.

She can be reached at kate@themainemonitor.org.

Annie Ropeik reports primarily on climate change, energy and the environment. She is the assistant director of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk and a board member with the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Annie previously reported for Spectrum News Maine and spent about a decade as a local public radio reporter, including for New Hampshire Public Radio, where she co-hosted the special podcast series Windfall and covered wildfire adaptation for NPR. Annie’s reporting has earned accolades from SEJ, the Public Media Journalists Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New England.

Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for newspapers in Ireland, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida.

While working at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Walsh reported on first-degree killer William Horton Jr. and Massachusetts’ flawed prison-furlough system. The series changed in-state sentencing laws and won a 1988 Pulitzer Prize. During her career at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Barbara wrote in-depth series on several social issues in Maine. Many of her stories changed laws and earned national, state and regional awards.

Joyce Kryszak is a veteran journalist living in Down East Maine. Before moving to Maine, her work as a public radio reporter and producer for NPR affiliate, WBFO, in Buffalo earned her an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award and many Associated Press awards for in-depth reporting on government, social justice, cultural affairs, and the environment.

She has reported for the national desk of NPR, Voice of America, New England News Collaborative, The Environment Report, Buffalo News, and others.

Genius Black, also known as Jerry Edwards, is a social innovator, entrepreneur, and musical artist based in South Portland, Maine.

Naturally a storyteller and motivator, he focuses on collaboration and audio/video production as a craft. Genius curates a collaborative network and collective of musical talent, GEM CITY, driving the intersection of art, culture, and quality of place unique to Maine’s coast.

He holds a degree in Africana Studies and an English minor from Bowdoin College. He is the father of two teenagers, 15 and 19 years old.

Genius is a media and communications organizer for TheThirdPlace and a proud board member of Portland Media Center.

George Harvey is the Multimedia Editor for The Maine Monitor. He joined the staff as a production assistant in February 2021 and was promoted three months later.

He oversees digital and newsletter production, coordinates social media content and shares the work of The Maine Monitor’s staff writers and contributors with media partners around the state.

George has freelanced and contributed stories to publications in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas and Maine. He previously worked in athletics administration, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University.

He can be reached at george@themainemonitor.org.

Amy Jeanroy is the social media and audience outreach coordinator for The Maine Monitor.

She has been an editor and writer for over 30 years, writing for About.com, NPR’s Earth Eats, Foodista, and others. As a former editor of both newspaper and magazine, Amy has always been drawn to community engagement and the value of good conversation.

Amy lives in Robbinston with her family where she writes books on gardening and food preservation.

She can be reached at amelia@themainemonitor.org.

Christina Leonard is a senior at Bates College, double majoring in Psychology and Rhetoric. She is the Executive Managing Editor of The Bates Student. Prior to that, Christina held the role of Digital Editor at The Student for the past three years where she led a complete overhaul of the paper’s digital presence. She was raised in London, England.

Roger McCord has had a wide-ranging career in journalism, spanning the gamut from writing/reporting to daily news photography to working on various news desks as an editor. The most recent incarnation is in video production – usually brief features and mini-documentaries in and about Maine.

A Maine native, Garrick has been doing photography professionally since 2017, beginning his career in photojournalism for a variety of southern Maine weeklies. He has since branched out in landscapes, portraits, professional headshots, products, events, and behind-the-scenes photography.

In 2021 he won his first award for photography: Third Place in the 2021 Appalachian Mountain Club Photo Contest for his photo, “Ice Fisherman by Shawnee Peak.” A year later, he won First Place in the Outdoors Close to Home category of the same photo contest for his photo, “Coastal Mood.”

In addition to photography, Garrick is also a writer, graphic artist, and podcast host who enjoys playing drums for his church, long bike rides and hikes, and experiencing the wealth of natural beauty of Maine and beyond.

Follow him on Instagram by clicking here and here, as well as on Facebook. For canvas and framed prints of Maine-based landscapes, visit his website.