Team
Floodlight is a team of eight, including five reporters and one editor. We are located around the country, with reporters in Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta — and two reporters in Louisiana, where we have a concentrated focus on the impacts of the oil and gas industry.
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Mario Alejandro Ariza, Investigative Reporter
Mario Alejandro Ariza is an investigative reporter and a Dominican immigrant. His byline has appeared in publications including the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The New Republic and NPR.
A two-part series he co-reported with NPR and fellow Floodlight reporter Miranda Green was chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and won the Los Angeles Press Club's award on misinformation. A story from the series won first place for the 2024 Southern Environmental Law Center's Reed Award for reporting on the environment.
Mario wrote a book called Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe, which was published by Bold Type Books. His essays have been featured in The Believer and selected for Best American Essays. He lives in South Florida with his cat, his dog, and a sturdy pair of waterproof boots.
Miranda Green, Director of Investigations
Miranda Green is based in Los Angeles. She is the director of investigations, where she reports on climate-focused projects including the intersection of dark money, the fossil fuel industrial complex and the manipulation of news to spread misinformation.
She's worked on collaborations with NPR, The Los Angeles Times and The Guardian among others. A two-part series she co-reported with NPR was chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and won the Los Angeles Press Club's award on misinformation. A story from the series won first place for the 2024 Southern Environmental Law Center's Reed Award for reporting on the environment.
Previously she covered politics for seven years from Washington, D.C., reporting on staff for CNN, The Hill, Scripps and Newsweek.
Dee J. Hall, Editor-in-Chief
Dee J. Hall has been Floodlight’s editor-in-chief since November 2023. Dee is the former managing editor of Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit investigative news outlet based in Madison and Milwaukee that she co-founded with her husband, Andy, in 2009. Wisconsin Watch, formerly the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, was one of the first nonprofit state-based newsrooms in the United States.
In her more than 40 years in journalism, Dee has won more than three dozen state, regional and national awards for her reporting. During her eight years as Wisconsin Watch's managing editor, Dee edited and reported more than 70 award-winning projects. Dee previously reported for the Wisconsin State Journal and the Arizona Republic.
Emily Holden, Founder & Executive Director
Emily founded Floodlight in 2021, after more than a decade as an environment reporter in Washington, D.C. She reported for The Guardian, Politico, E&E News and CQ Roll Call. Her work has also been published in The Arizona Republic, the Baton Rouge Advocate, the Houston Chronicle and Gannett newspapers. She is a winner of the 2022 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award.
Emily covered the White House, federal agencies, Congress, the courts and electricity regulation through the Obama and Trump administrations. She grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Terry Jones, Investigative Reporter
Terry is a Baton Rouge, Louisiana native and has lived and worked there for the last decade. Before joining Floodlight, he was the City Hall reporter for The Advocate. He has covered crime, local politics and environmental issues in the Louisiana capital and the surrounding area.
Terry is a graduate of Southern University. In 2020, he was awarded a reporting fellowship from Investigative Reporters and Editors and uncovered how the East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Community Development mismanaged money meant for affordable housing. Jones also moonlights as a writer of young adult fiction.
Lee Pedinoff, Director of Development & Operations
Lee supports the Floodlight team behind-the-scenes, leading fundraising efforts and building systems to help the newsroom perform at its best.
Lee has a background in project management at early-stage (and growing) organizations, having recently served as the Director of Development & Operations at civic startup Arena. After helping build Arena, Lee invested in mission-driven startup founders, social entrepreneurs, and civic leaders at Incite.org, the family office of Swati Mylavarapu & Matt Rogers.
Lee began his career in public education, serving as a Founding Teacher at RePublic Schools and Teach for America Corps Member in Nashville, TN.
Pam Radtke, Gulf Coast Managing Editor
Pam Radtke is an environment, energy and climate reporter and editor who has reported on topics as wide ranging as drought in India, LNG imports and exports in the Gulf Coast, and utility regulation in California.
She is Floodlight’s Gulf Coast editor, which spans Louisiana and Texas. Past roles include energy and environment editor at CQ Roll Call, correspondent for Platts, and news editor at Engineering News-Record, where she led and wrote multiple award-winning climate-related packages.
A long-time New Orleans resident, Pam was part of The New Orleans Times-Picayune team that published after Hurricane Katrina — efforts for which it was awarded two Pulitzer prizes — and covered the storm’s aftermath on the state’s oil and gas industry and electric utilities.
Kristi Swartz, Investigative Reporter
Kristi is a veteran business reporter with years of experience covering the electricity industry. Before joining Floodlight, she spent eight years covering energy policy in the Southeast for E&E News’ Energywire.
Swartz previously wrote about Southern Co., among other topics, for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered NextEra and Florida’s energy economy at the Palm Beach Post. While at the Post, she received a Sunshine State News Award for deadline business reporting as well as a first-place Sunshine State award for non-deadline business reporting. She also worked at newspapers in North Carolina. Swartz is a native Marylander and is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She now lives in Atlanta.
Her work for Floodlight has appeared in The Guardian, Mother Jones, The Texas Tribune, Capital B and affiliates of States Newsroom.
Our Board
Jesse Bragg
Jesse Bragg is a program director at the Sequoia Climate Foundation, where he leads the organization’s work on strategic communications and engagement. Prior to joining Sequoia, Jesse was the media director at Corporate Accountability, a corporate watchdog and human rights organization, where he oversaw media communications across five areas—climate, food, tobacco, water, and democracy. Jesse has also worked in various communications, director, and political roles for state elected officials, a governor, and U.S. Representatives and Senators across the northeastern United States, including as executive director of a state political party. Jesse resides in southern California with his partner, Audrey, and their two children.
Ellen Weiss
Ellen Weiss is an award-winning journalist and leader with more than 40 years experience working in audio, video and digital newsrooms. Most recently, as Washington Bureau Chief and Vice President at The E. W. Scripps Company, she created a multimedia national investigative team and launched podcasting for the company. While there, she received her forth Peabody Award for the “Under the Radar” investigative series and the RFK’s Journalism Grand Prize for the investigative documentary “A Broken Trust,” a project highlighting the lack of justice for survivors of sexual assault on tribal lands.
Prior to that she spent nearly 30 years at NPR and served as Senior Vice President of News. In that role, she oversaw global expansion of NPR News, the creation of award-winning programs, an investigative unit, podcasts and the digital integration of the newsroom.
Weiss is a graduate of Smith College with a B.A. in international relations. She and her family live in Washington, D.C.
Andrés Jimenez
Andrés is executive director of Green 2.0, an organization aimed at increasing the representation of people of color within environmental organizations. Andrés previously served as Senior Director of Government Affairs at Citizens' Climate Lobby and the Associate Director of Government Relations at Ocean Conservancy. He has worked for New York City's mayor's office, the House Judiciary's Immigration Subcommittee, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, and Congressman Howard Berman.
Andrés was appointed as Planning Commissioner for Fairfax, Virginia in 2020 and was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors seat in the Mason District in 2023.