A pair of Public Affairs Reporting program graduates have joined the staff of Capitol News Illinois, a nonprofit news wire service that provides coverage of Illinois state government to news outlets throughout the state.

Hannah Meisel (PAR '14) was added to the CNI reporting team in January. She most recently covered state government for NPR Illinois. Read more about Hannah.

Andrew Adams (PAR '22) officially came on board on Feb. 22. In addition to reporting, Adams will focus on data reporting, including building databases and producing data visualizations to accompany news articles. He previously worked for Government Technology magazine. Read more about Andrew.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

The University of Illinois Springfield's Public Affairs Reporting program master's degree program, launched in 1972, trains students to become journalists who produce intelligent news coverage about government and politics. The highlight of the program is a six-month internship covering Illinois government from inside the state Capitol in Springfield.