Building a Better Beat:
Fall 2025 Cohort

Mississippi native Brittany Brown is a multimedia journalist at the Memphis-based newsroom MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, where she reports on local issues of public safety and justice through a movement journalism lens. Previously, she was a Report for America corps member and labor reporter at MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. She’s also worked as a public radio reporter at NPR’s Gulf States Newsroom, covering criminal justice and breaking news across Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Her audio/digital story on prison visitation restarting in Alabama after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted was named winner of a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Hard News. Brittany was also the inaugural Emerging Reporters Fellow at Mississippi Today, covering the state prison system before being hired full-time by the newsroom to cover criminal justice across the state. Brittany attended journalism school at the University of Mississippi, where she was the inaugural UM student-journalist to be named a Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellow, producing impactful, award-winning multimedia stories on the long-term impacts of hate crimes against Black Americans. 

Patrick Darrington is a Breaking News Reporter for AL.com based in Mobile, Alabama. Patrick primarily covers stories about public safety in his current role. He has experience covering a range of topics including state politics, prisons, labor and local issues. Patrick was named a third-place finalist for Best Spot News story in Division C by the Alabama Press Association in 2024. He graduated from Morehouse College in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

Gerard Edic is a staff writer covering gun violence in Leflore County and throughout the Mississippi Delta for The Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper as a Report for America corps member. This marks his second stint at the Commonwealth. More recently, Edic was the Gwen Ifill Fellow for PBS News Weekend and Washington Week, where he assisted with research and editorial production. For PBS News Weekend, he also pitched and co-produced segments on gang violence in Haiti, tensions in the South China Sea, the costs of school lunch junk fees and more. He's also interned at The American Prospect, where he wrote about policy issues, and at Prison Journalism Project, where he edited articles submitted by incarcerated writers. He got his start in journalism as a general assignment reporter for The Greenwood Commonwealth. He covered the consolidation process between the city and county school districts, the effects of flash flooding, as well as local government board meetings, community functions and local oddities. A native of the Kansas City, Missouri area, Edic enjoys running, cooking and is trying to get better at tennis. 

Zuri Primos is a Mass Communication student at Dillard University with a passion for writing and creativity. She aspires to unite these two traits to create meaningful narratives that serve her community, sponsors positive change through writing, and shine light on stories that were previously unheard.

Hannah Riley Fernandez is the co-facilitator of the Building a Better Beat cohort. Hannah is a writer, advocate, and communications expert who serves as the Center for Just Journalism’s Director of Programming. Prior to working directly with journalists and newsrooms on their safety coverage at CJJ, Hannah worked as the Director of Communications at the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit public interest law office, and before that in communications at the Innocence Project in New York and Boston. She is also a community organizer and freelance writer, with a focus on the criminal legal system. She is based in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Ryan "R.L." Nave is the co-facilitator of the Building a Better Beat cohort. Ryan is a veteran journalist with over 20 years of experience as a reporter, editor and newsroom leader. Most recently, he served as editor-in-chief of Reckon, where he led its spin-off into a standalone company and subsequent national expansion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at Jackson, Miss.-based Mississippi Today and news editor at the Jackson Free Press (now the Mississippi Free Press). His work has garnered numerous national, regional and local journalism awards. He's edited stories awarded the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism and a national Edward R. Murrow Award, and worked on teams that edited projects nominated for or awarded Pulitzer Prizes.