Our Staff
Amanda is the director of development and operations at Injustice Watch, where she is responsible for fundraising, strategic initiatives, and the day-to-day operations of the organization. Born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Amanda moved to Chicago in 2009, and has lived here ever since. Prior to joining Injustice Watch in 2017, Amanda worked for several Chicago-based nonprofit organizations and has more than ten years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising. She currently lives in Ravenswood.
Carlos is a reporter at Injustice Watch covering police, politics and immigrant communities. Previously, he worked at the Chicago Sun-Times and Newsweek. Carlos was born in Chicago and lives in the city’s Lower West Side. He also lived in Mexico for a while. Carlos graduated from Claremont McKenna College in southern California with a Bachelor’s in history. Only time will tell if he ends up going back to school.
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Charles is the audience engagement manager at Injustice Watch. Before joining the organization in April 2019, Charles got his start in media as a reporting fellow at City Bureau, covering city council and mental health in Chicago. Charles’s writing has been featured in the Chicago Defender, Chicago Magazine, and In These Times. Charles was born in Redondo Beach, California, but has been living on the southside of Chicago since the age of four. He graduated from Chicago State University with a bachelor’s in African-American Studies after leading a student campaign to prevent the university from closure. He is a 2018 and 2020 ArtsMatter grantee for hosting #ChurchOnThe9, a street-based open mic for the Chatham community.
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Grace is a reporter at Injustice Watch covering housing issues through an intersectional lens, while examining current housing policies and programs and how they affect communities and people’s everyday lives. Grace was born in Chicago and raised by Nigerian parents, and she currently living in the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and has a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. Before coming to Injustice Watch, she worked as a community engagement resident and breaking news reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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Jonah is the managing editor at Injustice Watch, where his job is to help reporters do their best work. He also helps manage our award-winning judicial election guides and collaborations, like The Circuit. Previously, he worked at Pacific Standard (RIP), the Chicago Reporter, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Jonah is originally from Minnesota, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and part of a lineage of writers and storytellers. He fell in love with Chicago — with all its flaws — as a student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Wicker Park with his wife, son, and their dog, who you’ve probably heard barking during a Zoom call.
Read Jonah’s stories. Follow him on Twitter. Send him an email.
Juliet is the executive director of Injustice Watch. Previously, she was the director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University’s law school, where she remains on the faculty and is associated with its Center for International Human Rights. From 2003 to 2010, Juliet was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago. Between college and law school, Juliet was a maternal and child health Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Morocco for two years. She graduated from Princeton University and Columbia Law School. Juliet and her husband moved to Chicago in 2003. They’ve since added three kids, two cats and a dog to their family. They all love the windy city.
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Maya is a senior reporter at Injustice Watch covering judges and the courts. Before joining the organization in 2021 she was a senior staff writer at the Chicago Reader, where she began working in 2016. Maya was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of nine. She’s lived in Chicago since 2013. Her freelance writing has appeared in The Appeal, Places Journal, In These Times, Slate, and The Trace. Maya holds a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester.
Read Maya’s stories. Follow her on Twitter. Send her an email.
Rita is a corps member with Report for America who covers immigration, policing, and class equity. At Injustice Watch she hopes to expand coverage to suburban communities and offer creative ways to engage and provide resources for folks impacted by our reporting. A Chicago suburbanite, Rita was raised in the East side of Aurora by Mexican parents and studied journalism and anthropology at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. Before joining Injustice Watch, she was the bilingual community engagement reporter for The Chicago Reporter, where she worked to expand coverage of Latinos in the suburbs.
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Verónica is an illustrator and muralist based in Chicago. At Injustice Watch, she creates visual art to accompany our public service and investigative journalism. Her work on voting rights, police misconduct, education, and LGBTQ+ health has appeared in the Chicago Reader, The Trace, Cicero Independiente, and Injustice Watch. Last year, along with artist Edgar Sosa, she completed the 2,430 sq. ft. mural “Flourish” for Yorktown Center. In 2021, she received an award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts and Humanities from the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer and she is a 2021 Peter Lisagor Finalist for Best Online Illustration. She continues to seek projects that allow her to tell visual stories through a social justice lens.
Reporting residents
Adriana Martinez-Smiley
Adriana (she/they) is a senior at Northwestern University, majoring in journalism with a concentration in critical race & ethnic studies, and comes to Injustice Watch through the Medill journalism residency program. Black, Chicanx and queer, she has a grassroots organizing background and is passionate about storytelling that is accessible and empowering to communities. Before coming to Injustice Watch, Adriana was editor-in-chief for Blackboard Magazine, a Black student interest magazine on Northwestern’s campus, and they are currently a documenter with City Bureau and a correspondent for Planet Forward. They are passionate about storytelling that is accessible and empowering to the communities it concerns.
Maureen Dunne
Maureen Dunne graduated from DePaul University with a degree in journalism. She was an associate editor with 14 East Magazine and has contributed to stories produced with the DePaul Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence. She has also worked as an organizer on political campaigns — from the mayoral to presidential level — and is passionate about covering politics, policies, and, most of all, their impact on communities.
Read Maureen’s stories. Send her an email.
Sky Patterson
Sky Patterson has loved research ever since they were a political science student at Northwestern University, where their honors thesis examined the effects of stop-and-frisk policing on political participation in Chicago. During college, they also worked as a researcher for BallotReady and Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Center on Wrongful Convictions. After working in public service post-graduation, Sky became even more passionate about the accessibility of information on political institutions and the economy. They are currently a fact-checker for South Side Weekly and a reporting fellow with City Bureau, where they are writing about Chicago’s guaranteed income program. Sky loves biking, craft beer, and trying to finish a Monday New York Times crossword in under 15 minutes.