Omidyar Network announces sixth class of reporters in residence

Washington, DC – Today, Omidyar Network announced the six journalists who will join its growing Reporters in Residence program in its largest cohort to date. As new Reporters in Residence, journalists Jacob Ward, Julia Black, Lora Kelley, Rita Omokha, Taylor Lorenz, and Vauhini Vara will spend the next six months reporting on the emerging rules, institutions, norms, people and narratives shaping our technology and society. 

Since early 2023, Omidyar Network’s Reporters in Residence program has empowered freelance journalists to pursue rigorous reporting that both informs the public and drives national conversations. In line with Omidyar Network’s recent strategy evolution, this year’s cohort will continue to focus on critical technological issues, including shifts in the policies, regulations and accountability structures that govern technology and GenAI; the impacts of competition and market concentration on the innovation and safety of tech products; and advanced technology’s implications for working people and the broader economy.  

“Our largest class yet includes journalists with a diverse range of interests covering tech across a variety of mediums. From investigative reporting to writing long-form essays and newsletters to producing podcasts and videos, our newest Reporters in Residence embody the cutting edge of technology journalism,” said Alexis Krieg, a director at Omidyar Network and the lead for the residency program. “Across their unique beats and platforms, we believe each journalist is well-positioned to help deepen society’s collective understanding of how humanity is steering the digital revolution. We look forward to seeing their excellent reporting in the months to come.” 

About the reporters: 

• Jacob Ward is a veteran journalist covering the intersection of technology,  human behavior, and social change at TheRipCurrent.com. From 2018 to 2024 he was the technology correspondent for NBC News, reporting for Nightly News, The TODAY Show, and MSNBC. Ward has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and others. He is the former editor-in-chief of Popular Science magazine, and was Al Jazeera’s science and technology  correspondent. Ward is a lecturer at the Stanford d.school, and was a Berggruen Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he began writing The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back. 
• Julia Black is a Brooklyn-based features writer focused on the technology industry’s role in shaping politics and society. She has worked for The Information, Business Insider, Vox, and Esquire magazine. She has covered some of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Ben Horowitz, as well as rising Silicon Valley subcultures and trends, like pronatalism, Christianity in tech, the industry’s political swing to the right, and the growing use of advanced reproductive technologies. Her work has also appeared in Billboard, The Verge, The Daily Beast, The Fine Print, and others.
• Lora Kelley is a freelance journalist and writer in Brooklyn. Previously on staff at The Atlantic and The New York Times, her writing on tech, business, books, and cultural change has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, GQ, Mother Jones, The Paris Review, The Drift, and other publications. She started her journalism career as a researcher for Times Opinion’s Privacy Project, and she covered the collapse of FTX and trial of Sam Bankman-Fried for The Times and The Atlantic. 
• Rita Omokha is an award-winning Nigerian American journalist who writes about politics and vulnerable communities. Her research, writing, and commentary have been featured in CNN, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Elle, Glamour, The Guardian, MSNBC, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and Wired. She’s an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she graduated at the top of the 2020 class and received the Pulitzer Prize Traveling Fellowship. Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America is her critically acclaimed debut book.
• Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist and content creator with over 542,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 153,000 subscribers on YouTube. She is the founder of User Magazine, a tech and online culture newsletter and host of the weekly tech podcast, Power User. She is a former technology columnist at The Washington Post, and technology reporter for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Business Insider. Her writing has appeared in New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and The Hollywood Reporter. She is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.
• Vauhini Vara is a journalist covering the relationships among those who influence and are influenced by technology creation — investors, executives, workers, users. Vara began her career at the Wall Street Journal and later launched and edited the business section of the New Yorker’s website. She has also edited for The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine. She is currently a contributing writer at Businessweek and also contributes to The New York Times and Wired. Her first nonfiction book, Searches, was published in 2025. She is also the author of the story collection This is Salvaged and the novel The Immortal King Rao, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. 

The Reporters in Residence program provides each journalist with a monthly stipend, travel expense coverage, and access to Omidyar Network’s extensive partner network. Reporters maintain full editorial control and discretion over their work. 

This cohort will build upon the success of previous Reporters in Residence including Caroline Haskins, Garrison Lovely, Tekendra Parmar, Zoë Bernard, Bryce Covert, Walter Frick, Megan Greenwell, Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, Kim Kelly, Brian Merchant, Louise Matsakis, Hamilton Nolan, Osita Nwanevu, Helaine Olen, Edward Ongweso Jr., Nick Romeo,  S.E. Smith, and Anna Louie Sussman. 

###

About Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic organization whose mission is to bend the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity, and possibility. Digital technology is a powerful and ubiquitous force that, harnessed wisely, makes wondrous things happen. We believe in working together to guide tech’s trajectory intentionally. Our vision is for our shared humanity to steer our digital future. So far, we have committed more than $1.94 billion to initiatives that share our vision. We engage, partner, and fund some of the world’s brightest thinkers and innovators to guide our digital future toward the greatest good for the greatest number of people.