leadership
Christopher Tyree
Founder & Senior Director
For more than 30 years, the Virginia native has carried his cameras and pens to report on stories from around the commonwealth and nearly every continent. His projects have been published in hundreds of the world's leading periodicals and broadcast networks including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, CNN, National Geographic TV, BBC, The Guardian and Mother Jones. He spent almost a decade as a multimedia journalist at The Virginian-Pilot.
Tyree's photography, films, writing and editing have been recognized nationally and internationally, earning him numerous awards from esteemed competitions including the Association of British Science Writers, Pictures of the Year international, National Press Photographers Association, Communication Arts, Society for Environmental Journalists, and The Associated Press.
His ground breaking reporting on micro plastic contamination of global drinking water in 2017-2018 led the World Health Organization to investigate the human health implications and has led to millions of dollars being devoted to research on the topic.
Reach him at chris.tyree@vcij.org
Louis Hansen
Cofounder & Senior Editor
Hansen has been a journalist for more than 20 years in New York, Philadelphia, Hampton Roads and Silicon Valley. He was an enterprise and investigative reporter for The Virginian-Pilot for more than a decade, covering state government, military affairs and criminal justice. He served as a combat correspondent in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covered the Virginia legislature and state and federal elections.
Hansen has won national and state awards for his work. His profile of a teenage gang member, “The Girl Who Took Down the Gang,” was published in a collection of the ten best newspaper narratives of 2012.
In 2015, he was one of 20 journalists from around the world chosen for a year-long, John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. He most recently covered Tesla, renewable energy and the housing crisis in California.
Reach him at louis.hansen@VCIJ.org
Advisory Board
Maria Carrillo
Maria Carrillo spent more than 25 years as a journalist in Virginia, leading dozens of projects that won national acclaim. She is was deputy editor/enterprise at the Tampa Bay Times and a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
Bruce Bradley
Bruce Bradley spent 34 years with Landmark Communications. He is the former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot and one-time president of Landmark's publishing division. He currently serves on the boards of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and ACCESS College Foundation. He is also on the Gordon-Connell Theological Seminary's Board of Trustees and Old Dominion University's Board of Visitors.
Carole Tarrant
Carole Tarrant is the former editor of The Roanoke Times and served on the Associated Press Managing Editors national board. After leading the Roanoke newsroom during the Virginia Tech shootings, she was recognized with a Mimi Award from the Dart Center for Trauma and Investigative Journalism. She started her journalism career as an intern at The Daily Press in Newport News and today administers Virginia’s largest “free college” program at Virginia Western Community College.
Katrice Hardy
Hardy, a Baton Rouge, La.-native, is South Region editor for Gannett. She previously served as managing editor of The Virginian-Pilot based in Norfolk, Virginia, where she worked for two decades. During her time in Norfolk, Hardy has served roles on the watchdog and enterprise beats, as well as metro editing positions. Under her leadership, the newspaper won several state and national honors, including state FOIA and Virginia Press Association awards. Other recognition came from the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference and the National Education Writers Association.
Michael Morisy
Morisy is co-founder and chief executive of MuckRock, a collaborative, nonprofit news site focused on bringing transparency to government. Morisy was previously an editor at the Boston Globe, where he launched the paper's technology vertical. He was a 2014-15 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and a 2012-13 Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Network Fellow at Harvard University. He graduated in 2007 from Cornell University with a degree in English.
Larry “Bud” Meyer
A career editor, newsman and nonprofit leader, he is co-founder and chair of Foothills Forum, a community news organization in Rappahannock County, Va. Bud served as vice president and secretary at the Knight Foundation for 14 years. He spent the previous two decades in Florida print journalism, including 14 years at The Miami Herald as an editor and member of the executive team. A strategic communications consultant for foundations and nonprofits, Bud is also founder of Morningside Press and author of the award-winning environmental novel Mother Fracker.