National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat have new four staff members: pictured clockwise, from top left, are Angie Von Slaughter; Olivia Bardo; Jesus Leyva; and Renée K. Gadoua. (Courtesy photos)
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We are excited to announce that National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat have four staff members joining our team. They will help us meet the demands of a changing media world, and make our publications more accessible to more audiences than ever.
Angie Von Slaughter will be NCR's new multimedia specialist. Von Slaughter has over 20 years of experience in the creative arts and storytelling. She previously worked as a designer and brand strategist for the Emery Agency, and currently serves as the founder and designer of Mousse Creative, an agency that specializes in social media design and marketing. She is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
"I am delighted to welcome Angie to NCR's growing digital media team," NCR digital editor John Grosso said. "As multimedia specialist, Angie will use her gifts and talents to create videos, podcasts and imagery that will provide new ways to share the stories and perspectives of those on the margins."
Also on the digital side, Global Sisters Report is welcoming Olivia Bardo as social/multimedia editor. Bardo will be not only overseeing GSR's social media presence, but also working to expand GSR's multimedia presence with videos, graphics and audio.
Bardo is a graduate of Messiah University, where she majored in English and minored in political science and gender studies. She also had the opportunity to study abroad at the University of Oxford. She currently resides in northern New Jersey.
Before joining the team at GSR, Bardo was an editorial assistant at Sojourners and a marketing intern at Commonweal. She is interested in conversations on women, gender, culture, communion and hope. She has written for Sojourners, Commonweal, New Jersey Monthly, Clerestory and The Porch.
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And GSR's editor team is adding Jesus Leyva as part-time content editor, on contract, to support both the English and Spanish-language editions. Leyva is an experienced bilingual communications writer, fiction writer, poet and development professional.
He was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California, in what he calls a "fascinating albeit underprivileged community" with the highest concentration of Mexicans and Mexican Americans outside of Mexico. He has a bachelor's degree in studio art and a master of fine arts in creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.
"As a cradle Catholic who was this close to joining the seminary, I'm grateful and excited to contribute my experience as a writer and my passion for the Catholic Church to Global Sisters Report," Leyva told me.
"It's terrific to have Olivia and Jesus join the GSR team and help us fulfill our mission to be a 'dynamic online community that reports on and gives voice to women religious around the world,' " added GSR editor Gail DeGeorge. "They each bring a set of unique talents, skills and experience and we're delighted to have them."
Finally, Renée K. Gadoua, our part-time copy editor who started in July 2021, is now moving into a full-time copy editing position. She is a writer and editor based in Syracuse, New York, who focuses on religion, social justice and people. She has written for numerous secular and Catholic outlets, including Religion News Service, the Syracuse Catholic Sun, U.S. Catholic and NCR.
Previously a religion reporter for The Post-Standard of Syracuse, Gadoua has won numerous writing awards for editorials, features and religion reporting from Religion News Association, Catholic Media Association and the New York State Associated Press Association. She earned a bachelor's degree from Le Moyne College in Syracuse and a master's degree from S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
These four positions will not only support our stellar journalism, but also help us grow in the digital media space with social media, videos and audio. I'll reach the 10-year mark as managing editor at NCR in December, and I'm amazed at how we've managed to keep up with the changing world of journalism with such a small staff and few resources.
It's only with the support of our readers, donors and members that we are able to do this. All over the country, newspapers face insurmountable challenges. Many are shrinking drastically. NCR has its very real challenges, too — but we deal with them and we can even expand as needed, because of the engaged and involved NCR community of support. Thank you for reading NCR, and for everything you do to help us.
