Johnson is a multimedia journalist and 2nd vice president of the National Writers Union. She鈥檚 a former editor at Essence magazine and has had op-eds published in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. She was a fellow in the American Film Institute鈥檚 Directing Workshop for Women, and has shot short films in Cape Town, South Africa; Dakar, Senegal; and Beijing, China. Johnson鈥檚 first short, 鈥淭alk Me To Death,鈥� was a narrative project produced through New Mexico鈥檚 Digital Film Institute, and it won editing and audience awards. She is the co-author of two books, including 鈥淪anta and Pete,鈥� which was made into a CBS TV movie starring James Earl Jones, Hume Cronyn and Flex Alexander. She is currently putting the finishing touches on a historical novel and was selected in 2022 as a Professional Artist Fellow by the Arts Council for Long Beach. She earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in communication from Stanford University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College.
Lutton鈥檚 work often centers everyday people. She worked for 14 years at WBEZ-Chicago, where her reporting and storytelling won national acclaim. Her education reporting examined Chicago鈥檚 dropout crisis, school segregation and youth violence. She covered the historic teachers strike of 2012 and the closing of 50 Chicago public schools. More recently, Lutton covered Chicago neighborhoods, writing about people, places, problems and possibilities across the city鈥檚 hundreds of unique communities. Lutton previously covered education in Chicago鈥檚 south suburbs for the Daily Southtown, and has worked as a freelance reporter in Michoac谩n, Mexico. Honors include a 2013 Peabody Award for her work on 鈥淭his American Life鈥� for its 鈥淗arper High School鈥� episodes, and a Studs Terkel Award for reporting on Chicago鈥檚 diverse communities. Lutton graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with bachelor鈥檚 degrees in English and urban studies.
Muscato is a journalist who focuses on technology and its influence over people鈥檚 lives. Most recently, she was a senior editor at TIME, working with a team to cover Big Tech, cryptocurrency, tech policy and more. Before that, she was an editor at MIT Technology Review, covering the COVID-19 pandemic 鈥� and the many ways that scientists and technologists raced to help. There, she was also a producer for a Webby-nominated investigative podcast about the pandemic鈥檚 origins. She has also researched and fact-checked for major nonfiction books on the tech industry and its evolution. She has worked as a researcher and producer on documentary films about climate change. In 2011, she served as a Leadership Resident with the Harpswell Foundation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is a graduate of Northwestern University鈥檚 journalism program and an alum of the AmeriCorps national service program.
Peterson is a photo editor, photojournalist and videographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She worked on the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning project, 鈥淥ne in a Billion,鈥� about the quest to cure a sick young boy by mapping his DNA. Her work includes 鈥淟ife Correction: The Marlin Dixon Story,鈥� for which she followed a newly released inmate for two years, and 鈥淎 New Prescription,鈥� which revealed how social conditions can affect health more than medical care. Peterson鈥檚 visuals illustrated 鈥淐ycles of Violence,鈥� a series on delayed justice after homicides in Milwaukee, and the 鈥淟essons Lost鈥� project, which focused on the causes and consequences of student churn in urban schools. In 鈥淐ultivating a Community,鈥� she helped examine a unique urban gardening program for African American boys affected by trauma. Before coming to Milwaukee in 2003, Peterson worked at the Orlando Sentinel as a photo editor and photojournalist with an emphasis on minority community reporting. She is a native of Washington, D.C., and graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in communication.
