Core Team
Mitzi Miller, Host
Mitzi Miller (she/her), Host, has been 70 Million’s narrator since season 1. She is a celebrated journalist, best-selling author, and veteran editor. After almost fifteen years in print media, in March 2015 she made a successful leap to television and film when she became Head of Development at Rainforest Entertainment. Before that, she served as the editor-in-chief of two of the country’s premier African-American magazines, EBONY and JET. She is the third individual and the only woman in history to have held both positions.
Paulina Velasco, Managing Producer
Paulina was Managing Producer at LWC Studios where she oversaw the daily operations for the independent audio production house. A seasoned audio reporter and producer, Paulina managed teams that produce 10-15 original and client shows each year, including podcasts for OWN, Penn State University, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and Ascend at the Aspen Institute.
Juleyka Lantigua, Creator & Executive Producer
In 2017, Juleyka (she/her) founded the production company LWC Studios after 18+ years in media (including NPR, The Atlantic, and Random House). LWC’s mission is to support and amplify the work of creators of color in digital audio and film.
Erica Huang, Sound Designer
Erica (she/her) is a sound designer and mix engineer based in Brooklyn. She's worked on documentary shows for PRX, Prologue Projects, CNN, and Spoke Media. You can hear her work in season five of 70 Million.
Michelle Baker, Photo Editor
Michelle Baker (she/ her) managed a distributed team of photographers around the country to capture images of all subjects for this season and season 3. She is a multimedia journalist proficient in video, audio and digital journalism, with a focus on visual storytelling. She studied Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she was selected to take part in the NPR Next Generation Radio program and honed her skills and love for public radio.
REPORTERS
Pamela Kirkland
Pamela Kirkland (she/her) is an award-winning journalist based in Atlanta and a field producer for CNN. She's covered breaking news events around the country ranging from hurricanes to elections and worked for The PBS NewsHour reporting on long-form stories about the opioid crisis, immigration, education, and more. She joined the NewsHour in 2015 from the Washington Post where she was part of the video team that produced the Emmy-nominated “N-word Project." She's traveled the country—covering three presidential campaigns, Congress, and the White House. She graduated with a degree in Political Science and Communication from the University of Pittsburgh.
Mark Betancourt
Mark Betancourt (he/him) is a freelance reporter based in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in print, radio and television, and often focuses on the ways in which large-scale systems fail or harm people living in poverty. His investigative reporting has been featured in High Country News, Reveal, The Detroit News, Vice and The Nation, on topics ranging from the massive overtaxation of homeowners in Detroit to the lack of mental health care for wildland firefighters. He also writes about science and technology for Air & Space and Eos. Follow Mark on Twitter.
Claire McInerny
Claire McInerny (she/her) is a freelance reporter and audio producer based in Austin, TX. She spent nine years reporting on education issues for NPR stations in Indiana and Texas, before leaving in 2022 to focus on long-form audio storytelling. Her reporting earned her an Edward R Murrow award in 2017 for a series of stories on English Learners in rural school districts.
Jordan Kauwling
Jordan Kauwling (she/her) is an audio producer based in Los Angeles, California. Her background is in solutions-based journalism. She has a love for audio storytelling that uplifts and heals marginalized communities and has produced podcasts for NPR, Maximum Fun, Warner Bros - Stage 13, and American Public Media.
Rhana Natour
Rhana (she/her) is an award-winning journalist, producer and host based in Washington D.C.
She has reported and produced video and written stories for PBS NewsHour, ABC News and VICE. As a reporter and producer with PBS NewsHour she covered everything from breaking news events to deep-dive stories on technology, gender, race and culture. Rhana worked for ABC News at their headquarters in New York City where she shared in an Emmy nomination for the Nightline special “Crisis in Syria.”
In 2022, her feature story “The Shooter’s Wife” for VICE News was a recipient of an award from the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association. Her feature documentary producing credits include “Speed Sisters” about a female race car driving team in the Middle East and “Man on the Run” that chronicles the 1MDB financial scandal.
Originally from Detroit, Rhana is a graduate of University of Michigan and was a Fulbright scholar in the U.A.E. Follow Rhana on Twitter: : https://twitter.com/RNatourious
Sonia Paul
Sonia (she/her) is a journalist and audio producer born and based in Oakland, California, and the daughter of immigrants from India and the Philippines. Her work is discussed in journalism, social work, criminal justice and religious studies courses, and cited in books, surveys and research papers about trends within minority communities, international digital media, politics, economic growth and gendered violence. She’s reported, produced and researched radio stories, podcasts and audio projects for NPR, PRI, KQED, Studio 360, Marketplace, Self Evident, Radiolab, Collective Next, The Washington Post, Vox Media, Pushkin Industries and more. In 2017, she was named a “rising star” and a senior fellow with the Fund for Investigative Journalism and Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. In 2019, she received an honorable mention as an AIR New Voices Scholar. Sonia graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School, where she studied as an Anne O’Hare McCormick Scholar. Her personal podcast is Loitering: The Occasional, But Lovable, Traveling Mini Pod, named after the “Why Loiter” movement fighting for women’s right to safe space (subscribe here!).
Fact Checkers
Catherine Nouhan
Catherine (she/her) is a Detroit-based print and audio journalist covering topics of criminal justice reform, gender politics, immigration, and food systems. She began her career in podcasting at Michigan Radio (WUOM), and started working in fact-checking as an investigative reporting assistant for Deadline Detroit. In addition to her work at LWC, she fact-checks for Neon Hum Media and is a member of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalist Association (AMEJA).
Ryan Katz
Ryan Katz (he/him) is a journalist focusing on longform storytelling. He is medium-agnostic, but mostly writes and produces audio. He's produced for APM Reports, Love + Radio, WBEZ, BBC, and Audible. Ryan's written stories have been published in The New Yorker, ProPublica, Topic, The Intercept, Esquire, and The Daily Beast. He's lived on four different continents, and been addicted to a mediocre English soccer team for as long as he can remember.
Haylee Mil
likan
Haylee Millikan (they/them) is a poet, artist, fact-checker and scholar originally from Spokane, Washington. Find them on their website, hmillikan.com.
Kate Gallagher
Kate Gallagher (she/her) is a freelance fact-checker and researcher based in mid-Michigan who's worked with South Side Weekly, Invisible Institute, Crime Show, Pretend, The Wall Street Journal, and more. When away from her desk, she can be found riding horses, milking goats, or trying to grow crops.
Looking for previous teams? Check them out: