Mimi Chakarova graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in Photography and is currently teaching at the Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley. Please e-mail photo related comments/questions to her.
First-year student Jenica Dover, 22, is a native of Massachusetts. An alumna of the University of Pennsylvania (C '99), she has dabbled in a range of media such as interning for the assignment desk at a local Philadelphia television station and assisting an independent filmmaker with the production of a documentary. Last summer, Dover interned in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Marketing and Communications Department. She also has written for the San Francisco Chronicle. Though her interest lies in long-form writing, Dover eventually would like to work in television.
Kamika Dunlap is a graduate student at UC Berkeley's journalism school. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1999 with a B.A. in Sociology. She has worked on the business and metro desks for Florida Today and the Alburquerque Journal. Her industry interests are business and technolgy reporting. This was her first trip to Africa.
After graduating from Wesleyan University, Christopher Gaither, 24, spent two years covering small-town politics for a daily newspaper in Connecticut and three months hitting Europe's trendiest spots for Hanging Out in Europe, a new travel guide by Frommer's. This was his first trip to Africa. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Wired News and the Contra Costa Times, and will spend summer 2000 as a reporting intern at The Miami Herald.
David Gilson is a San Francisco native and a first-year student at the School of Journalism. He is interested in print journalism and photography, and he plans to pursue a joint degree in international studies with a focus on east and southern Africa. In 1993, he studied in Kenya and in 1997 he taught at an elementary school in Namibia. Having survived the mean streets of Johannesburg and the climb to the top of Cape Town's Table Mountain, his advice to visitors to South Africa is: don't eat the lamb.
Jeff Gove is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. He recently finished his first film, "Monster Business," a look at the life of a professional monster truck driver. He has previously worked at ABC News.
Beginning his career as a metro reporter at the Washington Post, Acting Associate Professor Neil Henry also wrote major award-winning stories as investigative reporter, national correspondent, assistant foreign editor, and Africa bureau chief. A graduate in political science from Princeton University, Professor Henry earned a master's degree from Columbia University's School of Journalism. His three years in the Nairobi bureau brought him to 30 countries; he covered wars in Liberia and Ethiopia as well as popular movements for democratic change in Cameroon, Zambia, and Nigeria. Along with his continued interest in Africa, Professor Henry also focuses his attention on issues of journalistic ethics and mass media, urban society, and race. He's working on "Letters to Zoe," a memoir about racial integration in the 1950s and '60s.
Cassandra Herrman is a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley's journalism school, in the television and documentary department. She has lived and worked in East Africa where she wrote and directed a children's television program. In South Africa, she produced two television pieces. One focuses on an English language radio program for black South African children, and the other is a photographic essay about living conditions in a Cape Town township. She hopes to go into the high-profile, overpaid world of documentary production.
Joan Obra is a graduate student in the print and new media programs at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. She lived for eight years in New York, graduating from Barnard College in 1995 and working as an internet slave in Silicon Alley before coming to the West Coast. In addition to designing this website, she freelances for Bay Area publications. She will spend Summer 2000 as a metro desk intern at the Fresno Bee. Please feel free to email her with any technical questions about this website.
Julia Roller is a graduate student working towards joint degrees at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and the Pacific School of Religion. She was born in Alton, IL and graduated from Centre College in 1998 with a B.A. in International Relations and Religion. She has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Lexington Herald-Leader and Street Spirit. For the last three summers, she has worked as office manager for work camps on Indian reservations. Julia is currently writing a thesis about Christianity on the reservation and plans a career in religion writing. This was her first visit to South Africa, but she plans to go back and swim with the penguins again. Next time she won't eat the lamb curry.
Rehana Rossouw, 36, is deputy editor of The Mail & Guardian, southern Africa's largest weekly newspaper. A longtime member of the African National Congress, she was organizing labor strikes by the age of 15 and spent time in prison for planning Nelson Mandela's birthday party against government orders. She has also worked as a reporter and editor for The Argus (Cape Town) and South (Cape Town). She received a fellowship from The Freedom Forum to teach this international reporting class at the Graduate School of Journalism.
Kelly St. John was thrilled to travel to South Africa for this reporting assignment, especially since spent six months in neighboring Zimbabwe when she was a junior in college. A second-year student, Kelly has concentrated on print and documentary film. She has freelanced for papers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and East Bay Express, and spent last summer reporting for the Modesto Bee. Before J-School, Kelly worked on health policy for the director of the State Health Department. After she graduates in May, Kelly will report for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Greg Winter has interned for the Wall Street Journal, and will intern for the New York Times this summer. During graduate school, he contributed regularly to the San Francisco Chronicle.