Julia Kumari Drapkin has been a photographer and multimedia reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the last year. Previously, she was a freelance photographer for the Associated Press in New York, a photographer and picture editor for World Picture News, and a multimedia and photography intern for Time magazine. Drapkin began her journalism career covering the Tamil Tiger-controlled areas of Sri Lanka for the Associated Press in 2004. While with the AP, she documented the aftermath of civil war, helped break the story of a rebel leader's defection, and covered fighting between Tiger factions and the government. In 2005 she covered the Asian Tsunami for the AP and photographed New Orleans in the months following Hurricane Katrina. As an undergraduate, Kumari received a full scholarship to study anthropology and Latin American studies at Tulane University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 2002. Following graduation she worked with indigenous groups in Latin America and did post-graduate research on sustainable development. She received her master's degree in broadcast journalism and new media from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2006. Drapkin will be reporting on environment with PRI's The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International and WGBH in Boston.

Ambar Espinoza is currently working at Marketplace Productions as a researcher. Prior to joining Marketplace, she worked at Minnesota Public Radio as a reporter through a fellowship. Espinoza did several production stints with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" and "Weekend All Things Considered" during and after college. She also freelance reported for "Hispanic Link Weekly Report", a national newsweekly and worked for TEEN People Magazine as a Los Angeles News Team Reporter in 2001. She recently won a Minnesota AP Broadcast honorable mention award for a story about fetal deaths among Latinas in the Twin Cities. In 2005, Espinoza graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., with a degree in political science. As a student, Espinoza was a recipient of various journalism scholarships, including the National Press Club's Ellen Masin Persina scholarship and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Ruben Salazar scholarship. Espinoza got her start in journalism when she was just in high school as a writer and editor for her school's newspaper and as a reporter for "LA Youth", a city-wide nonprofit teen newspaper. She is a native of El Salvador and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She will be a Metcalf Diversity Fellow covering the environment at Minnesota Public Radio.

Natalie Garcia is currently covering the education beat for Visalia Times-Delta in Northern California. In 2006, she contributed to the Times-Delta, the Madera Tribune, the Fowler Ensign and the Tulare County Style Magazine, all in the San Joaquin Valley, as part of her participation in a community journalism course at California State University, Fresno. In 2006, she received the Chips Quinn Scholar Award to promote diversity in newsrooms nationwide from the Freedom Forum Foundation. At her placement paper, Garcia was a general assignment intern for three months before becoming a full-time staffer. In June 2006, she was able to combine her passions for journalism and travel by writing an editorial for the Times-Delta about her travels to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. She received her bachelors of arts in mass communication and journalism with an emphasis in print reporting from California State University, Fresno, in 2006. Garcia will be completing her Metcalf Diversity Fellowship at The Providence Journal.

Ngoc Nguyen has nine years of experience reporting for print, radio and online outlets. She is a freelance journalist and editor for NHA Magazine, a national bilingual Vietnamese American publication in California. She has been a freelance reporter for Pacifica Radio since 2001, reporting from South Korea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, where she produced special coverage of the World Trade Organization summit. Nguyen has worked as a healthcare journalist for SavvyHealth.com and About.com, and was an assistant producer at Marketplace, national public radio's show about global economics. She received her M.A. in journalism and mass communications from California State University in 2006. She received a B.A. in comparative literature (French and English) and a B.A. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997. Nguyen will report at The Sacramento Bee for her Metcalf Diversity Fellowship.

MA Shumin is an independent filmmaker and has been producing short Internet videos about the culture, landmarks, neighborhoods, and people of Paris and New York since 2005. She has produced a series of short documentary films on Manhattan's Chinatown for ExploreChinatown.com; a series of Paris neighborhood films for Paris tourism websites for VideoAgency.tv and Trivop.com; a series of short films on Paris neighborhoods and businesses for TurnHere.com, Discovery Channel Mobile Phone, InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel; and a series of four-minute films on Paris for UK's channel4.com/fourdocs. She worked for Radio TV Hong Kong, where she produced two weekly 30 minute programs, "The Week in Politics" and "Media Watch." Shumin attended City University of Hong Kong in 2001 and received her B.S. in television and film production, with a minor in French, from Syracuse University in 2002. She has also studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Universite de Bourgogne, and ESoDoc (European Social Documentary) and the IDFAcademy. She is fluent in French, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taishanese. Shumin will work as a Metcalf Diversity Fellow in radio and web with Talk of the Nation: Science Friday, a National Public Radio program based in New York.

Julie Varughese is a reporter for the Norwich Bulletin and NorwichBulletin.com in Connecticut. She previously worked as associate editor for University Business, a monthly magazine, and as cops and courts reporter for The Herald in New Britain, CT. From 2002 to 2004 she interned for Grade the News at Stanford University; Mother Jones; EWWoman.com; MSNBC–Buchanan and Press; and the Bronx Press-Review. She was a reporter, columnist and feature editor for The MounTimes, a biweekly college newspaper. Varughese volunteered for the San Francisco District I Supervisor's Office in 2001. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned her B.A. in communications from the College of Mount St. Vincent in 2003. Varughese will be reporting on the environment at the Times Union in Albany, New York, for her Metcalf Diversity Fellowship. Visit her website at www.julievarughese.com.