Carter Center Announces the 30th Cohort of Rosalynn Carter Fellows for Mental Health Journalism

ATLANTA (July 14, 2026) — The Carter Center has named nine U.S. recipients of the 2026-2027 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, as well as one international fellow focused on the intersection of mental health and climate change. The 10 fellows will receive training and mentorship as they begin projects on a variety of topics related to mental health and substance use disorders.

The 2026-2027 cohort is the 30th group selected since Mrs. Carter created the fellowship in 1996. The journalists selected include award-winning reporters, authors, and the fourth annual awardee of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Grant — awarded to a journalist who proposes an in-depth investigation into a mental health topic of their choice focusing on cutting-edge research in mental health treatments. The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grant was launched in 2023 in support of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism.

[About the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grant]

The international fellow focused on the intersection of mental health and climate change is supported by the Carter Center’s Human Rights Program and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute.

The Carter Center also collaborates with fellows at The National newspaper in the United Arab Emirates and the Shine organization in Ireland. The National reporter will be announced later this summer, and Shine recently announced the 2026-2027 Rosalynn Carter fellow: Echo and Irish Examiner journalist Donal O’Keeffe.

This year’s fellows will be the second cohort to use curriculum designed in partnership with The Poynter Institute, in addition to webinars and in-person training at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. These accomplished journalists applied to the fellowship and exhibited a high interest in in-depth mental health reporting. They were selected by a committee of current and former journalists, mental health experts, and the U.S. Fellowship Advisory Board.

Beginning in the fall, fellows will pursue innovative mental health journalism projects of their choice during the nonresidential, year-long fellowship. The projects tackle some of society’s biggest topics within mental health and substance use and seek to strengthen reporting, drive change in their communities, and help reduce stigma through lived experience and in-depth storytelling.

Carter Center U.S. fellows receive a $10,000 stipend in addition to intensive training from leading mental health and journalism experts.

The fellowships challenge recipients to delve deeper into learning about mental health and substance use disorders and to share reliable information with the public related to caregiving, research, and possible solutions to systemic challenges.

Fellows will receive virtual training on effective behavioral health reporting from past fellows and advisors, connect with alumni, be paired with mentors, and gain a deep understanding of behavioral health.

The Carter Center is pleased to welcome the 2026-2027 U.S. cohort for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism:

Grace Benninghoff
Reporter, Freelance
Instagram: @gbenninghoff1

Biography: Grace Benninghoff is a journalist based in Oregon and Maine. She is a regular contributor to the National Public Radio Network (NPR). Her work has also appeared in Texas Monthly, Grist, Vermont Public, and VTDigger. As a staff writer at The Portland Press Herald, she was awarded a first place Maine Press Association award for her coverage of homelessness. She also took home a first-place award for her series, “Life After Artie,” which documented the aftermath of the 2023 Lewiston shootings for a victim’s family. Grace is passionate about finding human stories at the center of hot-button social and political issues.

Elaine Grant
Reporter, Freelance
Instagram: @ elaineagrant

Biography: Elaine Grant is an award-winning audio and print journalist, podcaster, educator and former NPR member station reporter and producer. She is most interested in “wicked problems” affecting society, including healthcare, hunger, and race; she specializes in evocative depictions of the consequences of policies on real people.

Her work has appeared in a wide range of outlets, including The Guardian, NPR and member stations, the Associated Press, The Maine Monitor, Inc. Magazine, AARP The Magazine, US News & World Report, The Boston Globe, Fortune Small Business, CNN/Money, Current, and hundreds of trade magazines. She teaches audio storytelling at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Her podcast, Sound Judgment, won a Silver Signal Award and made Podranker’s 2026 list of Best Journalists Podcasts. Elaine is a recipient of the Colorado Broadcast Association and National Headliner awards for her work at Colorado Public Radio. Her TEDx talk about the Tulsa Race Massacre, The Secrets of Our Shared History, has been viewed almost 130,000 times.

Krys’tal Griffin
Reporter, Delaware Online/The News Journal

Biography: Krys’tal Griffin is an award-winning journalist covering community issues and trending topics for Delaware Online/The News Journal, a part of USA TODAY. She covers issues impacting Delawareans, how national topics relate to Delaware, what people are talking about in area communities and various aspects of living in the First State. She also covers health and accountability, informing Delawareans about public health issues, mental health resources, and other wellness-related topics, and keeps residents informed about how local entities operate. In 2025, she was awarded the Chips Quinn Reporter Fellowship, focusing on career development, mentorship, and skill building.

Brandon Kapelow
Photojournalist/Filmmaker, Freelance
Instagram: @bkapelow

Biography: As a survivor of suicide loss, Brandon Kapelow’s passion is for exploring topics related to mental health, which has been his focus as a Documentary Film Fellow at Columbia University’s DART Center for Journalism & Trauma (the Global Center for Journalism & Trauma), and a Western Media Fellow at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. Brandon’s film, “An Act of Service” premiered on The New York Times Op-Docs in 2024 and documents the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies in treating workplace traumas for first responders. The film received the Best Documentary Award at the Aesthetica Film Festival, and was featured in Short of the Week, Director’s Library. He is currently in production on a feature-length adaptation of the film, which is being executive produced by Riley Keough and Clay Tweel. Brandon is a winner of the 2024 Young Guns awards showcase, whose films have screened at numerous domestic and international festivals. Brandon’s ongoing body of work, “Somewhere I Belong” focuses on the issue of suicide in the American West, which for decades has experienced the nation’s highest rates of suicide death. Brandon lives in Wyoming and has written and photographed stories for TIME Magazine, NPR, and Magnum Photos. Outside of his creative practice, Brandon is a peer-support facilitator for SOLACE and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and serves on their Ethical Reporting Advisory Committee.

Monique O. Madan
Reporter, Freelance
Instagram: @moniqueomadan

Biography: Monique O. Madan is an award-winning investigative journalist with nearly two decades of experience covering immigration, criminal justice, and government accountability. Her work has been published in the Miami Herald, USA Today, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, and El Nuevo Herald. Her reporting has led to significant real-world impact, including the release of a man held in immigration detention for more than a decade and reforms during the COVID-19 pandemic and contributed to the release of thousands of detainees. In addition to her reporting, she serves as a storytelling advisor and educator, mentoring journalists and leading workshops through organizations including the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Her work focuses on strengthening investigative techniques, sourcing strategies, and narrative clarity. She is the founder of Two Can Be True, an independent publication that builds on her newsroom experience by combining original reporting with analysis and essays grounded in lived experience. Madan is a graduate of Harvard University and Emerson College.

Marga Parés
Reporter, Freelance
Instagram: marga922

Biography: Marga Parés is a Puerto Rico-based Journalist with 20+ years of experience at a leading media organization, now working as an independent reporter, mainly covering health topics, while also covering public policy, science, wellness, aging populations, and vulnerable communities, with an emphasis on solutions journalism. Marga has earned fellowships including: the Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems from the Annenberg Center for Health Journalism; and the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program from the Gerontological Society of America and the Journalists Network on Generations. She has won awards from the Puerto Rico Journalists Association and the Overseas Press Club of Puerto Rico, including the Special Award for Excellence in Health Journalism for three consecutive years. She won the The Carmen Millán Pabón Human Interest Story from Overseas Press Club in 2025.

Michal Ruprecht
Reporter, NPR
Instagram: @mrup.01

Biography: Michal Ruprecht is a contributor to NPR‘s science desk and a fourth-year medical student at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He reports on how power, misinformation and prejudice shape who gets care and who is left behind. Ruprecht previously worked at NPR as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow and Stanford Global Health Media Fellow. As a Stanford fellow, Ruprecht spent a semester taking graduate-level journalism courses through the Stanford Journalism Program. Alongside his studies, he became the first fellow to receive a reporting fellowship at NPR, working for the outlet while completing coursework. He later worked at CNN, reporting on how the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is affecting foreign-born doctors. He also spent a month in Uganda reporting on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with support from The Pulitzer Center. He has also interned at ABC News and MedPage Today during medical school. Ruprecht serves on the boards of the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Riley’s Way Foundation. He is a student advisory board member of the Society of Professional Journalists and a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists Membership Committee.

Laura Trujillo
Reporter, USA TODAY
Twitter/X: @lauratrujillowords

Biography: Laura Trujillo is a health columnist and reporter at USA TODAY. She has been an editor and reporter at USA TODAY, The (Cincinnati) Enquirer, The Arizona Republic and The (Portland) Oregonian. She is the author of “Stepping Back from the Ledge” about her mother’s suicide which was named one of The New Yorker’s best books of 2022. She is a 2024 graduate of the CUNY Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership and was a judge for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for memoirs. She was part of the team that was a finalist for a breaking news Pulitzer for coverage of the shooting of Gabby Giffords. In 2019, while freelancing, she won a national headliner award along with two other USA TODAY reporters for a series on suicide. As an editor, Trujillo also helped reporters earn James Beard, Livington and Headliner awards.

Michael Waldholz – 2026-2027 Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Fellow
Reporter, Freelance

Biography: Michael Waldholz is an accomplished health care and medical science reporter, editor, and book author. He both a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years and wrote numerous front page feature stories about the biopharmaceutical industry, health care policy, health economics, and diseases, such as AIDS, infectious disease, cancer and genetics. WaldhoIz led a team that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for the Journal’s coverage of the first drugs for treating HIV/AIDS. He was a managing editor at Bloomberg News for 6 years, where he created and oversaw the site’s global health care coverage and supervised 35 reporters and editors. Waldholz is also the author of two books for lay audiences covering the first years of the gene mapping revolution. He mentors reporters and editors at several non-profit online news sites as a member of Pro News Coaches, a non-profit created by Wall Street Journal alumni, and Report for America, an organization that supports journalists early in their careers.

International Fellow for Mental Health and Climate Change

Annie Zulu: 2026-2027 SNF Global Center Communicator Fellow (SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute)
Reporter, Freelance

Biography: Annie Zulu is an award-winning freelance investigative journalist based in Lusaka, Zambia, dedicated to uncovering critical issues related to human rights, gender equality, climate change, and environmental justice. During her career spanning seven years, she built a strong track record of impactful reporting that amplifies underreported voices and examines how environmental and social crises affect vulnerable communities, including their mental health and wellbeing. Her work has been featured in renowned media outlets including The Continent, Viewfinder Africa Brief, Bird Story Agency, African Women in Media (AWiM) News, Makanday Center for Investigative Journalism, Crown TV, and the Zambia Daily Mail. Zulu’s reporting has earned her several prestigious awards and recognitions, including the African Union Media Challenge Award, the Makanday Eminent Prize for Investigative Journalism, the Africa Safety Journalist of the Year Award, and the MISA Golden Television Journalism Award. Additionally, Annie is a Fellow of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). Beyond her reporting, Annie is passionate about nurturing the next generation of journalists serving as a journalism mentor with the Zambia Free Press Initiative.

Learn more about the Carter Center’s Georgia mental health program.

Follow @CarterFellows on X for reporting from all Rosalynn Carter Fellows for Mental Health Journalism.

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