Fifteen Journalists Join Columbia Journalism School for Inaugural Nathan S. Collier Business Reporting Program
The fully funded five-day program brought reporters from across the United States and around the world to Columbia for intensive training in business and economic journalism.
Fifteen journalists from newsrooms across the United States and around the world gathered at Columbia Journalism School this week for the inaugural Nathan S. Collier Business Reporting Program, an intensive five-day workshop designed to strengthen their coverage of business and the economy.
Held October 26–30 at Pulitzer Hall, the fully funded program brought together reporters covering housing, energy, technology, health care, global trade and other subjects that shape the economy and people's everyday lives. The inaugural cohort represented a range of local, national and international news organizations, including the Associated Press, Nikkei Asia, The Seattle Times, Fortune magazine, Financial Times, El Nuevo Dia, The Salt Lake Tribune, and Memphis Business Journal.
The program opened with remarks from Nathan S. Collier, followed by a conversation between Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb and CNBC Editor-in-Chief David Cho about the state of business journalism.
Over the course of the week, fellows took seminars on accounting, inflation, the U.S. stock market, commercial and residential real estate, and the complexities of the labor market. Workshops focused on the reporting and writing skills needed to make complex business stories accessible to readers.
Instructors included Planet Money's Robert Smith, The New York Times' Maureen Farrell, Knight-Bagehot Fellowship Executive Director Pallavi Gogoi, Columbia Business School's Brian Lancaster and Columbia Journalism School's Keren Blankfeld.
The fellows also visited the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bloomberg News, gaining a closer look at two institutions central to the financial system and business journalism.
Meet the Inaugural Fellows:
Megan Fernandes
Business Reporter, The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
Megan Fernandes covers business for The Post and Courier, writing about tourism, retail, development and aviation, plus her own column and the paper's weekly Business Newsletter. Before joining The Post and Courier, she covered business beats in Honolulu and Chicago, as well as local government, education, and business in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Wyatte Grantham-Philips
Business Reporter, The Associated Press (Chicago, IL)
Wyatte Grantham-Philips is a business reporter for the Associated Press, where she covers trending news like tariffs, antitrust, AI, and labor organizing. Before that, she covered trending news at USA TODAY and interned at Variety and California Magazine. She got her start writing for the youth section of her hometown paper, The Santa Fe New Mexican.
Camila Grigera Naón
Crypto Fellow, Fortune Magazine (Washington, D.C.)
Camila Grigera Naón is a Crypto Fellow at Fortune, where she covers crypto, prediction markets and how it’s reshaping Wall Street. Before that, she covered the intersection of politics and crypto for BelnCrypto, produced a weekly radio show on politics in Argentina, and reported for Infobae and Clarín in Buenos Aires. She also worked as a researcher for a book on corruption in Argentina by investigative journalist Jorge Lanata.
Wendy Guzman
Reporter, Memphis Business Journal (Memphis, TN)
Wendy Guzman is a reporter at the Memphis Business Journal where she covers tourism, hospitality, banking, startups and higher education. She previously interned at The Wall Street Journal and at Forbes.
Paighten Harkins
Business Reporter, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT)
Paighten Harkins is a Business Reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, where she covers business. She previously spent years reporting on crime and breaking news there, including contributing to the paper’s "Shots Fired” investigation into police shootings, which was a finalist for the Livingston Award. She started her career at Tulsa World and interned at the Austin American-Statesman and The Oklahoman. In 2026, she was the first-place winner in Business Feature for the Top of the Rockies SPJ Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Harper Harwell
Reporter, Birmingham Business Journal (Birmingham, AL)
Harper Harwell covers tech, health care, and education for the Birmingham Business Journal. She regularly joins the paper’s weekly radio and TV segments to talk through the week’s biggest stories. She started her journalism career as editor-in-chief of The Samford Crimson, Samford University’s student newspaper, after a year as its news editor.
Joel Jacobs
Data Reporter, ProPublica (Seattle, WA)
Joel Jacobs is a Data Reporter at ProPublica, where he works on investigations into topics like credit bureau errors, predatory tribal lending and troubled housing. Before joining ProPublica, he was a data reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Washington Post, where his reporting on nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic won a SABEW award.
Greg Kim
Energy Reporter, The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA)
Greg Kim covers energy for The Seattle Times, writing about how data centers are reshaping the Northwest's power system. His work was named a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist for breaking news. Before joining The Seattle Times, he reported for Alaska's KYUK in rural Alaska.
Yeji Jesse Lee
Senior Business Reporter, LAW360 (New York, NY)
Yeji Jesse Lee is a senior healthcare business reporter at Law360. She previously covered retail, healthcare and also reported on cannabis and psychedelics at Business Insider, where she built out the neuroscience beat from scratch.
Efraín Montalbán Ríos
Business Reporter, El Nuevo Día - GFR Media (San Juan, PR)
Efraín Montalbán Ríos covers business for El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico's largest daily newspaper, writing about banking, manufacturing and the island's Financial Oversight and Management Board. He previously covered economics for El Vocero de Puerto Rico and Univision Puerto Rico. He is a board member and treasurer of the Overseas Press Club of Puerto Rico.
Rafe Rosner-Uddin
San Francisco Correspondent, Financial Times (San Francisco, CA)
Rafe Rosner-Uddin is the San Francisco correspondent for the Financial Times, where he covers tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle, as well as the AI investment boom and the gig economy. He joined the FT as a trainee in the UK and went on to help lead its coverage of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal and an investigation that led to a UK minister's resignation. This work got him shortlisted for Young Journalist of the Year. Before the Financial Times, he covered Scottish and UK politics for Newsdirect.
Sarah Elizabeth Rumpf
Reporter and Contributing Editor, Mediaite (Orlando, FL)
Sarah Elizabeth Rumpf is a contributing editor at Mediaite, where she edits pitches and covers breaking news and legal analysis. She's been a journalist and political commentator since 2010, writing for outlets like National Review, The Daily Beast, and the Orlando Sentinel. Before her work in journalism, she was a practicing attorney.
Rachel Shin
Food & Agriculture Policy Reporter, POLITICO (Washington, D.C.)
Rachel Shin covers food and agriculture policy for POLITICO, leading the daily Morning Agriculture newsletter and breaking news on federal food aid and USDA policy. Her freelance writing has appeared in The Washington Post and The Atlantic.
Alexis Weisend
Business Reporter, The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA)
Alexis Weisend is a Business Reporter at The Seattle Times. She got her start reporting at Eugene Weekly before moving to The Columbian in Vancouver, Washington. There, her reporting on homelessness and evictions won a NAREE award and several SPJ honors. Upon joining The Seattle Times, she covered real estate and housing; she now writes the paper's morning business newsletter, splitting her time between dailies and deep enterprise reporting.
Pak Yiu
U.S. Correspondent, Nikkei Asia (New York, NY)
Pak Yiu is the U.S. correspondent for Nikkei Asia, covering U.S.-Asia trade and investment, including a SABEW-winning series on how Chinese firms evade U.S. trade rules. Before this role, he was Nikkei Asia's U.S. editor and its Hong Kong correspondent, where his "Asia Hydropolitics" series won both SOPA and SABEW awards. He has also reported for Thomson Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Learn more about the Nathan S. Collier Business Reporting Program at Columbia University.