Editorial Team

Our freelance team of reporters, researchers, data analysts and editors specialize in deeply researched, data-driven stories and projects on issues that impact all Granite Staters. 

Editors

Caitlin Agnew - Assistant Editor. Caitlin Agnew is a recent graduate from Franklin Pierce University as a Communications Major and Environmental Studies Minor. She began working with Granite State News Collaborative during her junior year when she joined The State We’re In team. Caitlin was awarded The Fitzwater Medallion for Contributions to the Public Discourse.

Jeff Feingold - Editor of NH Business Review. Jeff Feingold has been a journalist since 1976. In that time, he has worked as a reporter and editor at weekly and daily newspapers in New Jersey and New Hampshire. 

Editor of NH Business Review for a total of nearly 37 years before retiring in 2023, he also has worked as a freelance writer for state, regional and national publications, including The New York Times and The Nation, has been a longtime guest on public affairs shows on radio and TV and was host of NH Business Review’s weekly “Down To Business” podcast for three years . 

He has taught journalism and the First Amendment at New England College and writing at Granite State College. He is a member of the board of directors of CATCH Neighborhood Housing, an organization that develops and manages affordable housing in New Hampshire and served for six years as one of the first three male members of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation board of directors.

He is a graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and earned a master’s in writing from New England College. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of human letters by Granite State College in recognition of his contributions to the New Hampshire community and to the college itself.

Tom Kearney - Editor. Kearney is a former executive editor of The Keene (N.H.) Sentinel and the six-newspaper Vermont Community News Group, former senior editor at VTDigger. Honors: New England Newspaper Hall of Fame, New Hampshire First Amendment Award, Yankee Quill award. Interviewed scores of candidates for president, including Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton. Past posts: president, New England Society of Newspaper Editors; co-chair, N.H. Committee on Judiciary and the Media; board member, New England First Amendment Coalition, New England Newspaper and Press Association. Two-time juror for Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. Delegate in New England exchanges with Russian journalists and, briefly, with Iran journalists. 

Reporters

Jacob Barrett - Reporter. Jacob is a New Hampshire native with a knack for meshing creative writing and journalism in order to humanize interesting subjects that help readers empathize, understand, and engage readers. Jacob completed his bachelor's degree in journalism in 2017. While working as a freelance writer and communications consultant, he completed his master's degree in communication in 2023 at Southern New Hampshire University.

As a disabled individual living with cerebral palsy, Jacob is passionate about reducing the stigma that surrounds physical impairments and hopes to one day use his writing skills to help empower and educate others who may be struggling with a disability. 

Jacob still resides in New Hampshire with his two dogs, Apollo and Willow. He enjoys collecting vinyl records, checking out local restaurants, and learning about U.S. History.

Kelly Burch - Reporter. Kelly Burch is an award-winning journalist who covers health, business, finance and more. Her reported pieces and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Independent, Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Business Insider, where she's a regular contributor. Kelly loves that the Collaborative gives her the opportunity to cover local New Hampshire news with a solutions lens and the same caliber of reporting that she brings to national stories. When she's not at her desk, Kelly is hiking or kayaking around the Granite State. Follow Kelly on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Cassandra Chabot - Reporter. Cassandra Chabot is a recent graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a keen interest in journalistic writing, specifically regarding community, culture, and town administration. 

Sarah Donovan - Reporter. My name is Sarah Donovan. I recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in English/Journalism and Communication. I am most passionate in covering social justice issues, politics and the climate. For the past three years I wrote for UNH's student-run paper, The New Hampshire, and for the past two, was an editor where I gained firsthand experience in the world of journalism and found a love for the craft. I aspire to create informative content that appeals to people from all backgrounds. In my free time, you can find me hiking in the White Mountains with my dog, or practicing pilates.

Susan Geier - Reporter. Susan Geier is a freelance writer and marketing communications consultant. For more than 15 years, she worked in daily and business newspapers in various roles as a reporter, city editor, news editor, and assistant managing editor. Since 2018, she has been a columnist ant contributor to the Granite State News Collaborative and other New Hampshire-based publications covering subject such as the opioid epidemic, New Hampshire’s childcare crisis, the nonprofit industry, and medication-assisted treatment in county jails. She has more than 17 years’ experience of in-house and consulting experience leading marketing and communication efforts in the nonprofit, public health, legal, and civic engagement sectors.

Anthony Payton - Columnist and Podcast Host of The Common Ground Initiative. Anthony Payton is a Brooklyn-raised, New Hampshire-based distinguished columnist and podcast host. He is a multiple award-winning journalist who regularly freelances for the Granite State News Collaborative and ManchesterInkLink. Anthony is also a TEDx speaker, Consultant, and Media Entrepreneur who most recently started Anthony Payton Media and an online news site, Nashua Digital. Anthony is a passionate communicator committed to excellence. He is a talented storyteller who is redefining journalism. He can be reached at anthonypayton111@gmail.com

Aidan Powley - Reporter. Aidan Powley is a rising senior at Elon University, and is originally from Exeter, New Hampshire. He is a passionate journalism student minoring in political science and has an even deeper passion for sports writing. He is a reporter for Elon News Network, covering local stories at his university, city council meetings, and news of surrounding towns in the area.

Max Scheinblum - Reporter. Max is a recent graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where he double majored in English/Journalism and Political Science. He is the former executive editor of The New Hampshire, UNH's student media outlet, where he led the newsroom to several statewide and regional awards during his three semesters in charge. His work appears in several other publications, including New Hampshire PBS, VTDigger and The Concord Monitor. Among many topics, he has covered various national and state-wide election cycles, the coming removal of Durham, New Hampshire's Mill Pond Dam and Vermont's agricultural sector after flooding in summer 2023. He recently completed a six-week cross-country road trip and is enjoying being stationary back home in Hopkinton, New Hampshire.

Dave Solomon - Reporter. Dave Solomon is a freelance writer and communications consultant who has worked as a reporter and editor in New Hampshire for the past 40 years. He was the founding partner of an alternative weekly serving the Portsmouth area in the 1980s, New Hampshire Seacoast Sunday. In the 1990s, he was executive editor of the Portsmouth Herald and affiliated weeklies in Hampton and Exeter. In the 2000s, he served as executive editor of the Nashua Telegraph and publisher of the Milford Cabinet. From 2012-2019 he was a senior staff writer and State House Bureau Chief for the New Hampshire Union Leader. As a contributor to the Granite State News Collaborative, Dave has covered the opioid epidemic in New Hampshire; law enforcement reform and accountability; and discriminatory lending in the home mortgage market. He currently serves as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Press Association.

Kylie Valluzzi - Intern. Kylie is a New Jersey native and senior at the University of New Hampshire pursuing a BA in English/Journalism. She is passionate about covering social justice and climate change issues, striving to amplify underrepresented voices. Kylie also actively contributes to UNH's student-run newspaper, The New Hampshire, taking on the role of News Editor for the Spring 2024 term.

Rhianwen Watkins - Reporter. Rhianwen Watkins is a New Hampshire-based journalist who currently works as an investigative reporter with the Granite State News Collaborative as well as a freelancer for the New York Times National Desk. She received her degree in journalism from the University of New Hampshire where she worked as the arts editor for the university’s newspaper, The New Hampshire. Upon graduating, she began freelancing for Seacoast Media Group, covering local and statewide news. With the Collaborative, her stories have been featured in newspapers and magazines across the state and have won multiple statewide and New England-wide awards. Rhianwen has also been a featured guest twice on NHPBS’s “The State We’re In” to discuss topics she reported on. She is currently the lead reporter for the collaborative’s investigative project, Invisible Walls, which looks at exclusionary zoning practices and the housing crisis in NH. She also worked extensively on reporting for the state’s decennial updates to the education minimum standards. Outside of reporting, Rhianwen is a professional dancer who has performed in Boston, New York City and throughout Maine and New Hampshire.

Interns

Kay Bailey - Intern. Kay Bailey is a student at Plymouth State University, pursuing a degree in political science. She is currently serving as the Co-President of Poets and Writers, as well as the Print Editor for The Clock, Plymouth State’s student newspaper, and Vice President of PSU Democrats. While at Plymouth, Kay spends her time publishing a campus literary journal filled with student art and writing, as well as creating the physical circulation of the Clock.

 Kay enjoys a strong cup of coffee, well curated music, a poem or two, and some good honest student journalism. She is a strong believer that while print may be a dying industry, it's an industry well worth saving. Books should be free! Media should be free! Information should be free!

Jacob Donwey - Editor-in-Chief of The Clock, Intern. Jacob Downey got his start in journalism as a teenager, writing about bands and comic books for Teens In Print, Boston’s citywide highschool newspaper. Now a senior political science major at Plymouth State University, he has served as editor-in-chief of The Clock for the past two years.

A passionate muckraker, Jacob has been on the forefront of reporting on issues with PSU’s Student Senate. When not rasing hell, he has covered everything from vandalism downtown to 2023’s SAG-AFTRA strikes. 

What little freetime Jacob gets is spent playing Baldur's Gate 3 with fellow intern Kay Bailey, reading X-Men, and trying to learn how to do a kickflip. 

James Kelly - Intern. James Kelly is a freshman at Plymouth State University, and originally hails from Concord, New Hampshire. He is studying economics and political science. James is Opinions Editor for The Clock, PSU's student publication, where he has covered local and presidential politics, PSU events, and pop culture.