Leadership
Vanan Murugesan
Vanan is the Executive Director of Sahan Journal, Minnesota’s only nonprofit newsroom dedicated to immigrants and communities of color. He didn’t come up through newsrooms — he came up through community-based organizations, where he honed his approach to innovation: solve real problems, test bold ideas, and always center the people you’re trying to serve. At Sahan, he’s focused on building a new kind of newsroom: sustainable, community-powered, and unafraid to challenge legacy assumptions.
A self-described precedent thinker (before he even knew that was a thing), Vanan draws inspiration from other industries to spark new ideas in local journalism. His current obsession: cracking the code on a viable business model for mission-driven news — and he’s always looking for co-conspirators who are just as restless. His new favorite line? “We have to start looking in other boxes to stimulate more outside-the-box thinking.”
A trained mechanical engineer, Vanan also holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management and a certificate in Design Thinking from Stanford’s d.school.
Outside of work, Vanan shares his love of cooking, music, and comics with his three children — who are finally old enough to watch his favorite movies with him. Add a dash of EDM and late-night film marathons, and you’ve got a leader who’s dead serious about impact but refuses to take himself too seriously.
Dawn Flinsch
Dawn Flinsch is the director of development at Sahan Journal. Her career has focused on equitable access to essential services and elevating cultural and emotional enrichment for all Minnesotans. She joined Sahan in 2021 following a six-year campaign with MPR | APM which launched verticals focused on water, mental health, early child brain development, an investigative journalism unit, and co-working space for media disruption and innovation. She supported capital campaigns for Open Book, a center dedicated to book and literary arts, and the Cesar Pelli-designed Minneapolis Central Library on Nicollet Mall. Dawn is a big fan of hot yoga, smart memoirs, and her Gemini twins.
Mayuri Meera
Mayuri Meera is the director of operations and finance at Sahan Journal. Mayuri supports our dedicated staff with internal policies rooted in our values of equity and inclusion. Mayuri is excited to witness our reporters develop stories amplifying immigrant and BIPOC voices in the Twin Cities. She is also writing her doctoral dissertation on collaborative approaches to organizational development. When she’s not working, you’ll find her exploring parks and trails with her daughter and her dog.
Michael Tortorello
Michael Tortorello is the chief growth officer of Sahan Journal. He spent 10-odd years contributing to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, often writing about homes and gardens. Going indoors, Michael has written about the way people express their identity through their homes: young adults with autism; a self-governing community of previously unhoused people; teenagers who film their bedrooms. When curiosity has gotten the better of him, Michael has contributed science-driven reporting in short hits for NewYorker.com and longer features for Consumer Reports and Politico Magazine.
Sally Waterman
Sally Waterman is the director of advertising and sponsorship at Sahan Journal. She has worked in radio and print sales and in digital sales since the early 2000s, at major Minnesota news organizations as well as early internet pioneers like AOL. In 2007, Sally helped launch MinnPost, one of the first nonprofit digital news organizations in the state and the nation. Her work predates most of what we now recognize as the digital economy and helped shape the nonprofit news ecosystem we now inhabit. Sally joined Sahan Journal in March 2021.
Editorial
Aaron Nesheim
Aaron Nesheim is a photojournalist at Sahan Journal. Prior to joining Sahan Journal he documented the police killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright and subsequent trials of Derek Chauvin and Kim Potter for The New York Times. He has also photographed environmental movements like the fight against the Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. His work has also appeared in The Guardian, Grist, and Time Magazine. Outside of Sahan Journal he can be found wandering through downtown practicing street photography, and hiking in pursuit of landscapes and the aurora borealis.
Alberto Villafan
Alberto Villafan is the digital producer at Sahan Journal. He joined Sahan Journal in May 2024. Alberto graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and cultural studies and comparative literature. Previously, he worked as a producer for his university’s podcast, a fact checker for MinnPost and, most recently, as a digital producer for ABC 6 News – KAAL. Nowadays, he reads a lot of Superman comics.
Andrew Hazzard
Andrew Hazzard is a reporter with Sahan Journal who focuses on climate change and environmental justice issues. After starting his career in daily newspapers in Mississippi and North Dakota, Andrew returned to Minneapolis where he worked for local publications such as Southwest Journal. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Andrew enjoys travel, speaks Spanish, and is a depressed supporter of Minnesota’s professional sports teams. He and his wife live in Minneapolis.
Becky Z. Dernbach
Becky Z. Dernbach is the education reporter for Sahan Journal. Becky graduated from Carleton College in 2008, just in time for the economy to crash. She worked many jobs before going into journalism, including substitute teaching in the Minneapolis Public Schools and community organizing. She earned a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism in 2019 and worked as an editorial fellow for Mother Jones before joining Sahan Journal in June 2020 through Report for America.
Cynthia Tu
Cynthia Tu is the data reporter and news technology specialist at Sahan Journal. She analyzes public datasets, uncovers hidden patterns and trends in numbers, and tells stories with compelling data visualizations. As a news technology specialist, she integrates digital tools to streamline newsroom workflows and empower journalists with innovative storytelling techniques. Cynthia is a graduate of Emerson College and holds a master’s degree in data journalism from Columbia University. Outside of work, she is an avid listener of R&B music and a rookie crocheter.
Dymanh Chhoun
Dymanh Chhoun is a multimedia journalist at Sahan Journal. He comes to Sahan Journal from KARE 11 News, where he worked as a full-time photojournalist. Known for his breaking news coverage, Chhoun documented the police killings of Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, and, most recently, George Floyd.
Chhoun and his family moved to Minnesota from a Thai refugee camp in 1993, when he was 7 years old. He lived in south Minneapolis for 12 years, graduating from Roosevelt High School.
Chhoun is the first generation in his family to graduate from college, finishing his degree in 2011 at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He began his career as a photojournalist at Fox 21 in Duluth, then worked at KTTC-TV in Rochester, then WCCO-TV News and Kare 11.
When he’s not on assignment, Chhoun shoots photos and videos for family and community events; check out his work at Dymanh.com.
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim is the health reporter for Sahan Journal. Before joining Sahan, Mohamed worked for the nonprofit news site, MinnPost, covering public safety and the environment. He also worked as a reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis through Report for America, where he reported on the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 election, the Minnesota Legislature and the trial of Derek Chauvin, among other topics. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and worked for the university’s newspaper, the Minnesota Daily. When he’s not working, Mohamed can be found at the cinema.
Hannah Ihekoronye
Hannah Ihekoronye is the community engagement manager at Sahan Journal. She helps connect people with Sahan Journal by distributing its news on the website and social media and assisting with community engagement and newsletter production. Before joining Sahan, Hannah was the digital content strategist at Pillsbury United Communities. Hannah earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Joey Peters
Joey Peters is the politics and government reporter for Sahan Journal. He has been a journalist for 15 years. Before joining Sahan Journal, he worked for close to a decade in New Mexico, where his reporting prompted the resignation of the Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent and a successful public records lawsuit against the governor. His work has also appeared Reuters, Public Radio International, Columbia Journalism Review, City Pages, MinnPost and more.
Katelyn Vue
Katelyn Vue is the immigration reporter for Sahan Journal. She graduated in May 2022 from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Prior to joining Sahan Journal, she was a metro reporting intern at the Star Tribune. During college, she interned at PublicSource, SuperLawyers, and APM Reports. She also worked as a reporter and associate editor at the university’s newspaper, The Minnesota Daily.
From the East Side of St. Paul, Minnesota, Katelyn is passionate about storytelling and community building. Before college, Katelyn participated as a student reporter in the nonprofit journalism high school program, ThreeSixty Journalism, based at the University of St. Thomas.
Katelyn is a Report for America corps member, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms.
Katrina Pross
Katrina Pross is the social services reporter at Sahan Journal, covering topics such as health and housing. She joined Sahan in 2024, and previously covered public safety. Before joining Sahan, Katrina covered criminal justice at WFYI Public Media, Indianapolis’ NPR affiliate, through Report for America. She also covered courts as a reporting fellow for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2020 with degrees in journalism and French. While in college, she was an editor at the student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily.
Samantha HoangLong
Samantha HoangLong is the audience growth manager at Sahan Journal. In her role, she leads innovative digital strategies to expand the nonprofit newsroom’s reach to Minnesota’s diverse communities. Her work is dedicated to telling under-told stories in creative and accessible ways. A lifelong Minnesotan, she got her start as a news content editor at FOX 9 KMSP-TV after graduating from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in fall of 2020.
Trisha Collopy
Trisha Collopy is the news editor at Sahan Journal.
Her work as a reporter has taken her inside the halls of Congress, to struggling malls in south Baltimore, fading towns in Appalachia, Hutterite colonies in Montana, and tribal casinos and survivalist enclaves in Washington state.
She’s interviewed four U.S. poet laureates, including Juan Felipe Herrara and Joy Harjo; written about prison writing programs and bilingual learning; and followed Hmong foragers and Eastern European mushroomers deep into Minnesota forests.
She spent nine years at the Star Tribune as a digital producer and a copy desk team leader. Before that, she worked at the Pioneer Press and mentored young journalists as a community college instructor and through ThreeSixty Journalism.
When not working, she can be found in the woods.
Business Development
Mitch Fantin
Mitch Fantin is the membership manager at Sahan Journal, where he helps to build the organization’s growing community of individual donors. Raised in a family of journalists, Mitch developed a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling and the vital role journalism plays in shaping communities. Mitch comes to Sahan with 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, philanthropic development, and stakeholder communications. He is passionate about the relational work of connecting an organization’s mission and impact to its community and supporters.
Outside of work, you can find Mitch experimenting in the kitchen, tending to his jungle of houseplants, or playing chess.
Gabriel Kwan
Siu Kan Gabriel Kwan is a development specialist at Sahan Journal. As part of the development team, Gabriel envisions and implements creative strategies that help Sahan deepen its connection with the communities it serves. Between his undergrad studies at Saint John’s University in Collegeville and his masters in creative writing at the University of Hong Kong, Gabriel covered youth and diversity issues as a Gary Eichten News Fellow at MPR News from 2018 to 2019. He is a native of Hong Kong, an unrepentant tea snob, and a tireless advocate for dim sum on weekdays that end in “y.”
Nicole Jošavac
Nicole Jošavac is the marketing and advertising manager at Sahan Journal. As part of the sales and advertising team, Nicole works directly with advertisers to place banners and sponsored content on Sahan Journal. She also launched and continues to manage Sahan’s first job board in Spring of 2024. Before joining Sahan, Nicole worked as a marketing associate for various local, small companies in the Twin Cities. She’s also volunteered with TEDxMinneapolis, American Heart Walk, Polar Plunge and more. While Nicole has worked in marketing and advertising, she also has a bachelor’s of journalism from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln.
