Jenae Barnes

Jenae Barnes covered issues at the intersection of public health, environmental justice, and the lived experiences of Black communities, with a particular focus on the Midwest and national audiences as the flagship health and environment reporter for Capital B Gary. She has been recognized with two awards by the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists for deeply reported, community-centered journalism, blending investigative rigor with narrative storytelling. Her reporting frequently highlights the impacts of climate change, gender and health disparities, and amplifying underrepresented voices.

Jenae was selected as a 2024 Pulitzer Center Story Reach Reporting Fellow, participated in the 2024 National Science, Health, and Environment Reporting Fellowship, and Wake Forest University’s Environmental and Epistemic Justice Fellowship. She is also a 2025 participant in the AHCJ German Health Care Study Group, where she reported on the health care experiences of Black expatriates in Germany.

Jenae plans to use the fellowship to research a project that looks at environmental justice issues in the US and abroad, and how these are linked by shared obstacles of socioeconomic status, geography, and historic redlining and/or colonization.