– Floridian GHI
// Panelists: Melissa Falkowski, Faculty Adviser/Teacher, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; Rebecca Schneid, Editor, The Eagle Eye (student newspaper); Scott Travis, Education Writer, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Lulu Ramadan, Community Reporter, Palm Beach Post; Nadege Green, Reporter, WLRN
Panel
Melissa Falkowski
Melissa Falkowski is the faculty adviser of The Eagle Eye, which she has been advising for the last three years. She has been teaching for 14 years at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Melissa advised the MSD Aerie yearbook for nine years, and currently advises the school literary magazine, Artifex. In addition to newspaper, she teaches English and creative writing Courses. She holds a Bachelor’s in English Education from Florida Atlantic University and a Master’s in Journalism from Kent State University. Journalism has long been a passion of Melissa’s; she began as a student journalist on her middle school yearbook staff and continued to pursue that passion throughout high school. She became a teacher to empower students and help them find their voices through student journalism. She credits her high school journalism teacher, Jeanette Johnson, for inspiring her to become a journalism and English teacher. When Melissa is not working she enjoys spending time with her family – her husband of 14 years, John; her 7-year-old son, John Thomas; and her 1-year-old daughter, Evangeline. Her other interests include trips to Disney World and reading.
Nadege Green
Nadege Green covers social justice issues and gun violence for WLRN, South Florida NPR affiliate.
For her, journalism boils down to not only telling the stories of the people who are accessible, but also seeking out the voices we don’t hear from, and telling those stories too.
She has written about how gun violence affects communities of color, police violence in South Florida’s black communities and housing equity in poor neighborhoods.
Green’s reporting has appeared in the Miami Herald, NPR and Public Radio International’s The World. Her work has also been cited in Teen Vogue, Refinery 29 and the Washington Post.
She previously worked at the Miami Herald covering city governments and the Haitian community.
Lulu Ramadan
Lulu Ramadan is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. She covers government, politics and community news in southern Palm Beach County, while also tackling major breaking news events, including three mass shootings she’s covered in the past three years, and diving into investigations of public corruption.
Twitter: @luluramadan
Scott Travis
Scott Travis has been an education writer with the South Florida Sun Sentinel since 1999 and has focused on the Broward County School District since 2012.
This year, he became the lead writer covering the school district’s response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy. Along with his colleague Megan O’Matz, he has broken stories about the district’s culture of leniency in discipline, its failures to report incidents of crime and bullying at Stoneman Douglas and its decision to keep a Stoneman Douglas security monitor who was believed to have sexually harassed students at the school. His reporting on these issues prompted a district review of discipline practices, a state audit of the district’s compliance in reporting crimes and the eventual firing of the security monitor.
He has been received numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Florida Press Club for other stories, including a legal strategy where school districts blamed children for their own sexual abuse; the Broward school district’s bungling of an $800 million bond referendum to fix decaying schools; and a profile of a teacher entering her 60th and final year as a Broward County educator.
A graduate of the University of Alabama, Scott has previously worked at the Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina and the Hattiesburg American and Natchez Democrat in Mississippi. He is also an actor and karaoke singer.
Event Timeslots (3)
– Track 1 –
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Floridian GHI
Panel: Melissa Falkowski, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; Rebecca Schneid, The Eagle Eye (student newspaper);
Scott Travis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Lulu Ramadan, Palm Beach Post; Nadege Green, WLRN
– Track 2 –
-
Floridian GHI
Panel: Melissa Falkowski, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; Rebecca Schneid, The Eagle Eye (student newspaper);
Scott Travis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Lulu Ramadan, Palm Beach Post; Nadege Green, WLRN
– Track 3 –
-
Floridian GHI
Panel: Melissa Falkowski, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; Rebecca Schneid, The Eagle Eye (student newspaper);
Scott Travis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Lulu Ramadan, Palm Beach Post; Nadege Green, WLRN
