PBS NewsHour Names Three New Reporters for its Communities Initiative

Arlington, VA (August 16, 2021) — PBS NewsHour today announced three new reporter hires to its cross-platform Communities Initiative, which was launched earlier this year. These new journalists will report from across the country as a part of the project’s mission to expand the scope and reach of NewsHour’s journalism and news team. Each has a deep knowledge of his or her community and a keen interest in bringing often under-told stories to NewsHour’s digital, social and broadcast platforms. They join Aaron Foley, a senior digital editor, and Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, who will report from Fresno, CA.

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang joins NewsHour as a Communities Reporter in the Dearborn/Detroit area. Her writing has appeared at NBCAsianAmerica, PRIGlobalNation, Mic, Center for Asian American Media, Angry Asian Man, Detroit Journalism Cooperative, and in several literary journals, anthologies, and art exhibitions. She previously taught Asian/Pacific Islander American civil rights and media at University of Michigan for twelve years and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her book of prose poetry, “You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids,” Wayne State Univ. Press, is coming in 2022.

Gabrielle Hays joins NewsHour as a Communities Reporter based in St. Louis City, where she was born and raised. She graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism and has dabbled in everything from network news, radio, local news and most recently long-form journalism with a local PBS affiliate. Gabrielle’s career started as an intern with PBS almost a decade ago and she often credits her start in journalism to being able to watch Gwen Ifill on TV.

Roby Chavez joins NewsHour as a Communities Reporter in his hometown of New Orleans. Chavez took a break in 2011 after 25 years in broadcast journalism to get married and become a stay-at-home dad, adopting two newborn babies while living in San Francisco. He moved back to New Orleans in 2015 with his husband and his two sons. During his journalism career, Chavez has covered big stories such as such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, the DC sniper, Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.

Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado joined PBS NewsHour in July as a Communities Reporter based in Fresno, CA. He is originally from Michoacan, Mexico and grew up in Tulare County, California. He comes most recently from the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, where he worked as communications director, leading the storytelling of environmental and civic community work happening in the San Joaquin Valley and the Eastern Coachella Valley. Before that, he worked as a reporter at The Fresno Bee, covering a range of issues including poverty and income inequality in the nation’s most populous state. He is a graduate of California State University, Fresno, and alumni of Fresno City College.

Aaron Foley joined NewsHour in June as a senior digital editor, focusing specifically on the Communities Initiative. Foley, who will relocate to DC, is originally from Detroit and spent years working in local and automotive news there before moving to California for the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University and then to New York to work at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY as director of the Black Media Initiative. He has published two books about Detroit with Belt Publishing, a small press focused on quality nonfiction from the Midwest, and has freelanced for a number of publications. Foley is a graduate of Michigan State University.

The Communities Initiative is funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, PBS and 26North Foundation.

Press Contact: Ella Richardson, erichardson (at) newshour (dot) org