Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic

Brandon Loomis has been an environmental reporter at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix since November 2012; he previously worked at other news outlets including the Salt Lake Tribune, Anchorage Daily News and Idaho Falls Post Register. Loomis won the 2012 Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment and the 2013 Best of the West Prize for Growth and Environmental Reporting. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska and was a 1993-94 Ted Scripps Graduate Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Raquel Rutledge is an investigative reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who previously reported at The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Christian Science Monitor. Rutledge won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for “Cashing In on Kids,” related to Wisconsin’s subsidized day care program; she has also earned other major investigative honors as the Gerald Loeb, Worth Bingham, George Polk and Goldsmith awards. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was a 2012 Neiman Fellow at Harvard University.

Marjorie Valbrun, Independent Journalist

Marjorie Valbrun has worked for The Baltimore Sun, The Wall Street Journal and The Philadelphia Inquirer and her work has appeared frequently in The Washington Post. Valbrun spent a year reporting on the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. She has won awards for international reporting and feature and editorial writing. She has degrees from Long Island University and Columbia University and has taught journalism at Howard University. She is a former Neiman Fellow at Harvard University and a past Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow.