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The WHQR news team looks back at 2023 and ahead to next year

On this episode, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman reflects on the past year with Kelly Kenoyer, Rachel Keith, Nikolai Mather, and Camille Mojica.

As 2023 comes to a close, WHQR News Director Ben Schachtman sat down with his colleagues in the newsroom to look back at the work they've done over the last 12 months.

For Kelly Kenoyer, that’s meant digging deep into housing and homelessness — but also spearheading not one but two public engagement campaigns to help connect our newsroom to the real world — and inspire better reporting.

For Rachel Keith, that’s meant covering education and the politics at Cape Fear Community College and the New Hanover County school board — but also digging into the psychology of adverse childhood experiences, a theory that undergirds some really positive work being done to help our region’s most vulnerable students.

For Nikolai Mather, it’s meant taking WHQR’s coverage into rural areas around Wilmington — sometimes into news deserts where he’s the only reporter. But he’s no parachute journalist, and he’s been working hard to build relationships — not just grab a scoop and leave.

And for Camille Mojica, it’s meant looking more closely at what happens when children enter state-run systems for mental health or criminal justice — and running a weekly podcast that’s been taking listeners behind the scenes of the WHQR newsroom and the stories we’re working on.

Ben Schachtman is a journalist and editor with a focus on local government accountability. He began reporting for Port City Daily in the Wilmington area in 2016 and took over as managing editor there in 2018. He’s a graduate of Rutgers College and later received his MA from NYU and his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook, both in English Literature. He loves spending time with his wife and playing rock'n'roll very loudly. You can reach him at BSchachtman@whqr.org and find him on Twitter @Ben_Schachtman.