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BrooklynCampaign.com is run by a group of graduate students studying digital media at the Columbia School of Journalism. This site focuses on politics in State Senate Districts 17 and 22 in Brooklyn, NY. For questions, please email thebrooklyncampaign[at]gmail.com or contact the staff writers individually. You can also follow us on Twitter @BKCampaign.

Alana Abramson is reporting on campaign finance and health care in State Senate District 17 in Brooklyn. She graduated from Brandeis University with honors last May. She has interned for CBS News and was an editor for the Brandeis Newspaper. She is originally from outside of Philadelphia but is thrilled to learn about and live in New York City.

Follow her on Twitter @aabramson. Email her at aa3317[at]columbia.edu.

Niki Blasina is reporting on State Senate District 17, specifically covering voter registration and women’s issues. Niki completed an undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Victoria (in British Columbia), before pursuing a career in public relations. Prior to starting at Columbia, she had been working as a fashion and lifestyle blogger and freelance writer. She has worked with MTV Canada, the Huffington Post, Complex Magazine, FASHION Magazine, and CTV News Channel, and continues to write what has been named one of the top fashion blogs in Canada, which she founded in 2009. Niki is originally from Vancouver, BC, and firmly believes that she is the biggest Vancouver Canucks fan in New York City.

Follow her on Twitter @AHauteMess. Email her at nlb2124[at]columbia.edu.

Shadi Bushra is covering the Arab community and Andrew Gounardes’ campaign in State Senate District 22. He was born in Sudan and raised in Minnesota. He attended Stanford University, where he earned a B.A. in International Relations, with honors in Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. His journalistic experience includes editing the Stanford Progressive, editing photos for the Stanford Daily, and interning at Sudan’s The Citizen newspaper.

Follow him on Twitter @ShadiBushra. Email him at sab2243[at]columbia.edu.

Ding Chenjie is covering the economy and voter turnout in State Senate District 22. Before coming to this lovely country, she was a staff journalist and editor at Forbes China from 2010 to 2012, covering business, investment and start-ups. This job provided her great opportunities to talk to lots of successful people and big dreamers from various fields, though every time her name could only appear above the list instead of in the list. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the Journalism School of Fudan University in Shanghai. During those years, she also spent half a year interning at China Central Television and another half year in California for an exchange program.

Follow her on Twitter @dingchenjie. Email her at dingchenjie.journalism[at]gmail.com.

Anna Goldenberg is covering education and Simcha Felder’s campaign in Senate District 17 in Brooklyn. Born and bred in Austria, Anna earned her BA in Politics, Psychology and Sociology at the University of Cambridge, UK before coming to Columbia.  Anna published her first newspaper at the age of seven, which was widely acclaimed within her closest family. More recently, she was an intern at Austrian news publications (Die Presse, Profil) and a staff writer at the Cambridge student newspaper Varsity. She is currently freelancing for Profil Wissen, an Austrian science magazine. Anna has dreamt of living in New York ever since she watched her first Woody Allen movie.

Follow her on Twitter at @annagoldenberg. Email her at ajg2196[at]columbia.edu.

Nikolas Iubel is covering foreign policy and electronic voting in State Senate District 17. He is a dual-degree master’s student in Computer Science and Journalism at Columbia University. Nikolas graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with distinction from Stanford University, where he earned his B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Science, with a minor in Modern Languages. A native of Curitiba, Brazil, Nikolas speaks English, Portuguese, Italian, German and intermediate French. His media experience includes interning with Brazil’s TV Globo in Florence, Italy, and with Project Cinema Jenin in Tübingen, Germany.

Follow him on Twitter @niqueiubel. Email him at nfi2103[at]columbia.edu.

Elaine Mao covers crime and the Marty Golden Campaign for State Senate in District 22. She is studying journalism and computer science at Columbia University. Elaine grew up in California and attended UC Berkeley, where she reported the Friday evening news for the college radio station, KALX 90.7, and graduated with a B.A. in Rhetoric and Applied Mathematics. After graduation, she worked part-time as a media analyst at Stanford University, and also interned part-time in the communications department of the Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit best known for running Wikipedia.

Follow her on Twitter @elainekmao. Email her at ekm2133[at]columbia.edu.

Helga Salinas is covering immigration and voter registration in State Senate District 22. She graduated from UCLA with degrees in History and Comparative Literature. At UCLA, she was Editor in Chief of La Gente Newsmagazine, which focused on the Latino community on campus and surrounding areas.

Follow her on Twitter @helga_salinas. Email her at hls2147[at]columbia.edu.

David Winograd is covering LGBT issues and David Storobin’s campaign in State Senate District 17. David was born and raised in New York City and received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, where he majored in Political Science, International Studies, and Business Institutions. After graduation, David worked as a Business Development Intern for Darren Star Productions in Los Angeles. He then spent two years working as a Business Analyst at Deloitte Consulting, a leading management & strategy consulting firm, where he focused primarily on the media and entertainment industries.

Follow him on Twitter @dwin212. Email him at dw2549[at]columbia.edu.