MEET THE MEDIA STAFF
Carmen
Editor-in-chief
Born in Bogota, Colombia but raised just outside of Washington, D.C. in Bethesda, Maryland, Carmen Molina Acosta has lived her life surrounded by politics and learned early on to compensate for her own inability to ever be president by grilling politicians on their own affairs. Carmen has a B.A. in political science from Princeton and a Masters in journalism from Columbia. She started out as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, but soon found herself returning to the states to cover the American political scene. She has written and edited for The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, covering the 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. In 2015, she published her bestselling novel, District of Colombia, a critical look into the nation’s role in Colombia’s civil conflict and drug trade history. With her extensive coverage expertise and her depth of political knowledge, Carmen was recently instated as the Editor-in-Chief of The Walking Nine, the forefront media organization covering the 2016-2017 election.
Julie
Webmaster
Julie grew up in Bethesda Maryland where she worked on her high school newspaper, The Black & White, as a student journalist. After graduating from Stanford’s School Of Engineering, Julie worked with Apple's design team in Silicon Valley California for a few years before deciding to go back to journalism. Julie has worked for the Washington Post and the New York Times. Julie has since moved to the Washington area to join The Walking Nine as a website manager during the campaign. Julie plans to move back to California after the election to pursue a career that enables her to utilize her engineering credentials as well as her journalistic skills.
Elea
Webmaster
Elea got her start in journalism as a feature writer and editor for Walt Whitman High School’s newspaper, the Black and White. After graduating from the Boston University school of journalism, Elea then interned with the New York Times before becoming a full time writer, specializing in entertainment as it relates to social justice, education-related news, arts and culture, and foreign policy at various points in her career. She then became the Managing Arts and Science Editor at the New York Times before moving to Boston to take the job as Executive Feature Editor for The Boston Globe. Elea was also the Assistant Social media Director at the Globe and wrote satire part time for the Onion while working at the Globe. In 2014, Elea began working at The Walking Nine as the Co-Webmaster, specializing in social media, and is the main writer for the satire subsection of The Walking Nine, The Jicama. Elea lives in Bethesda with her husband Zac, her children Declan, Julia, and Michaela, and her two dogs and one cat.
Journalist
As a graduate of New York University Journalism school, Elisa began her writing career on the school’s newspaper. She later transitioned to report for the San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe and New York Times. Elisa has also pursued a career in television, as an MSNBC contributor and host of “The First Look.” Elisa is a campaign, expert, as she covered the 2004 Kerry campaign for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Clinton campaign in 2008 for the Globe and the McCain campaign in 2012 for the Times. In 2012, her dedicated work on the campaign trail made Elisa a runner up for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize award. In November of 2016, Elisa signed on to the Walking Nine staff as an election-coverage journalist for the competitive 2016 class elections.
Archi
Journalist
Archi Singh is a journalist, known for her writing in several newspapers and books. She is currently one of the journalists of The Walking Nine, where she covers the campaigns of the 2016 election. She attended New York University to obtain her degree in journalism. She has previously written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune. She also traveled to Turkmenistan where she and Hannah Weisman, a fellow news anchor, co-authored a New York Times bestseller titled Ashgabat. The book captured the daily life of the capital of Turkmenistan. Currently, she lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dornubari
Journalist
Dornubari Awanen is a writer and editor focused mostly on political journalism. Dornubari received her B.A. in economics from Syracuse University in 2012. She received her Ph.D in political science from Stanford in 2015. She has always been close to political related issues; she was part of the Obama campaign management team in 2012. She has previously written articles for newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times as well as The Economist magazine. She recently became a journalist for The Walking Nine in November 2016.
Kelsie
Journalist
Kelsie is an award-winning journalist and author. She graduated from Yale with a masters in journalism and political science. Since graduating from college, she has traveled the world, writing for some of the world’s most well-known newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Times of India, and The Sydney Morning Herald. She has taken a break from her travels to return to her hometown and cover the interesting and always exciting 2016-2017 class election as a journalist on the The Walking Nine.
Hannah
Anchor
Hannah Weisman earned her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has been reporting on international and domestic politics ever since. During her career as a reporter, she has reported for news networks such as CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Currently, she reports for The Walking Nine and acts as anchor for the news show The Weekly Wise Man. Along with reporter Archi Singh of The Walking Nine, Weisman co-authored the New York Times bestselling novel, Ashgabat about their travels in Turkmenistan studying the domestic policies of the nation. In her spare time, Weisman enjoys playing violin with various chamber music groups, as well as semi-professional diving.
Sarinah
Pollster
Sarinah Wahl is a pollster and a survey researcher who covers anything from public opinion and economic issues to global attitudes and social issues. She graduated from Cornell University, earning her master’s degree in statistical science. She has associated with the Roper Center, a poll center and archives that is based within the university, for three years. Eventually, Sarinah’s new job takes her to Washington, D.C. where the Pew Research Group is. She previously worked with the Pew Research Group for five years. Currently, Sarinah is working for The Walking Nine, a media that covers the 2016-2017 election, as a pollster.
