The 2024 Wounded Warrior Award winners are Emily Barone, Samuel Braslow, Jasper Craven, Will DiGravio, Gale Holland, Kelly Kennedy, Morgan Lieberman, Russell Midori, Christian Martinez, Rebecca Murga, Andrew Nusca, John Patrick Pullen and Sarah Rogers.
Emily Barone, Managing editor at Long Lead
Emily Barone is managing editor at Long Lead, a journalism studio that tells impactful stories through its multimedia productions. In the two decades prior to joining Long Lead, Emily covered data-driven stories related to business, health, and politics for national and international outlets including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and TIME.
Samuel Braslow, Independent photojournalist and reporter
Samuel Braslow is a photojournalist and reporter whose work has been featured in Rolling Stone, CNN, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, and NBC News. He previously worked as a staff writer at the Beverly Hills Courier, before which he wrote for Los Angeles magazine. He has also contributed to ESPN, National Geographic, The Advocate, and Dame magazine.
Jasper Craven, Investigative reporter covering the military and veterans’ issues
Jasper Craven is an investigative reporter covering the military and veterans’ issues for outlets including The Intercept, Harper’s, The New Republic, New York magazine, and the New York Times. He’s also a fellow at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute.
Will DiGravio, Researcher, fact-checker, and writer
Will DiGravio is an independent researcher, fact-checker, and writer based in New York City. His work on books, podcasts, and other multimedia projects has centered on topics including US history and politics, national security, conspiracism, gun violence, disinformation, and extremism. His essays and reviews have appeared in publications like Time, Paste, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the magazine Cineaste, where he is an assistant editor. He is also a PhD Candidate in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Gale Holland, Editor and reporter
Gale Holland is an independent journalist who covered addiction and homelessness for the Los Angeles Times where she edited the law enforcement and legal affairs beat, wrote news columns and covered higher education. A series about college construction abuses she wrote with Michael Finnegan won an investigative reporting award from the Nieman Foundation. A Los Angeles native, she has extensive experience covering courts for Copley News Service and USA Today, and she has worked as an editor and a writer for LA Weekly and the Daily Journal.
Kelly Kennedy, Best-selling author, award-winning journalist and experienced co-author
Kelly Kennedy is the only American woman who has both served in combat — in Iraq and Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Army — and covered it as a civilian journalist. In 2008, she broke the story about the burn pits in war zones, coverage of which ultimately led to the PACT Act. She is the first female president of Military Reporters and Editors and the former managing editor of The War Horse. She covered health policy for USA TODAY, covered military health at Military Times, and is the best-selling author of They Fought for Each Other, and the co-author of The Unit with Adam Gamal, Queen of Cuba with Pete Lapp, and Fight Like a Girl with Kate Germano.
Morgan Lieberman, Independent photographer
Morgan Lieberman is a visual documentarian who is most drawn to narratives of identity, subculture, and stories of empowerment. Her work has been published in National Geographic, TIME, the New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She is based in Los Angeles and currently working on her first long term documentary book project chronicling the lives of senior lesbian partnerships across the US.
Russell Midori, Photojournalist and certified drone pilot
Russell Midori is a writer, photojournalist, documentary producer, and Marine veteran whose work has appeared on VICE HBO, 48 Hours, CBS Evening News, PIX 11 in New York, Spike TV, CBSN Originals, Fox Nation, Task & Purpose, among other places. He is also the founder of Military Veterans in Journalism, a nonprofit that helps veterans develop careers in news media.
Christian Martinez, Breaking news, crime, and public safety reporter
Christian Martinez is a crime and public safety reporter covering the San Diego Police Department for the Union-Tribune. He previously covered breaking news for the Los Angeles Times and the Ventura County Star and business for the Lansing State Journal. He has covered mass shootings, protests, real estate and politics. A Southern California native, he graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California.
Rebecca Murga, Filmmaker with a diverse portfolio encompassing films, branded content, and documentaries
Rebecca Murga is a Chicago-born filmmaker specializing in telling stories of her Puerto Rican roots and military experience. She is currently a writer on the ABC TV series Will Trent, an American police procedural crime drama television series. She has also written on Apple TV+’s Swagger and is currently a writer and executive producer on a coming-of-age ROTC drama series at Amazon Studios. Murga started her career as a sports producer and joined the military shortly after 9/11, serving as a Public Affairs Officer in the US Army and deployed to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. She returned to the states to work as a Spanish news producer covering a variety of stories in Mexico and Central America. She currently runs a non-profit called Veterans in Media & Entertainment whose mission is dedicated to providing classes, mentorships, and jobs to military veterans transitioning into the industry, and also teaches BIPOC artists at the Sundance Collab.
Andrew Nusca, Editorial director of Fortune Brainstorm
Andrew Nusca is the Editorial Director of Fortune Brainstorm, the business icon’s innovation-obsessed community and event series that culminates in an annual, invite-only retreat in Deer Valley, Utah. A longtime editorial leader at Fortune, Nusca rejoined the publication in 2024 after serving as Senior Director and Editor-in-Chief at Activision Blizzard and Executive Editor at Morning Brew. In his previous stint at Fortune, he led the global digital editorial team and coverage across the website, newsletters, and social media channels. He was also co-chair of Fortune Brainstorm Tech. He joined Fortune in 2013 from ZDNet and CBS Interactive.
John Patrick Pullen, Founding editor of Long Lead
John Patrick Pullen is the founding editor of the journalism studio Long Lead. An experienced journalist who has written and edited about technology, business, politics, entertainment, breaking news, and other topics for a variety of publications, he has also worked on-staff at both TIME and Fortune. As an independent journalist, his work has appeared in publications including WIRED, Entrepreneur, Quartz, Men’s Journal, Boston Magazine, and elsewhere. He co-founded Long Lead in 2021 with the mission of giving independent journalists access to resources they wouldn’t otherwise have and platforming the art and craft of longform journalism.
Sarah Rogers
Sarah Rogers is Long Lead’s creative director, partnering with photojournalists, filmmakers, designers, agencies, and researchers to bring groundbreaking visuals to the journalism studio’s award-winning reporting. She previously led innovative creative teams at CNN and The Daily Beast, and her work has been featured in outlets including The New York Times, ABC News, Rolling Stone, and Prison Journalism Project.
