I’m an award-winning journalist

and Senior Producer at KQED’s Snap Judgment in San Francisco, CA. A lot of my stories are driven by my interests in women's health & safety, the Middle East and food. I’m also a journalist fellow at USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture, and report stories about engaged spirituality.

In addition to Snap Judgment, my stories have been distributed by outlets like Public Radio International, National Public Radio and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. They’ve taken me to a thorn forest in India, mushroom houses in the Rwandan hills, a home for retired movie stars in Myanmar, an ice cream shop in Gaza City & a lot of strawberry farms in the Palestinian Territories. My work has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the International Women's Media Foundation, the UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship and more.

some work I'm especially proud of:

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At the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, Shaina managed the production of a Snap Judgment mini-series Letters from Lockdown, which was nominated for a 2020 Webby Award. The Third Coast awards committee selected her co-production with Adreanna Rodriguez at Vice News Reports, Bloodlines, as a finalist for the 2021 Best Documentary award. Bloodlines was also selected as one of Bello Collective’s 100 outstanding podcasts of 2021. Her work on Counted: an Oakland Story earned the Third Coast 2018 Best Documentary Gold Award. Shaina has reported from India, Myanmar, Hungary, Rwanda, the American Deep South, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She also teaches Writing Pad’s Podcasting class in San Francisco, and the What We Hold Youth Audio Project at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Shaina was born and raised in Birmingham, AL, and studied International Affairs and Fine Art at George Washington University. She has an MA in Islamic and Middle East Studies from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a Masters of Journalism from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, which she earned as a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellow in Arabic and the Middle East. She is skilled in video, animation and photo editing software including Pro Tools, Adobe Premiere, Audition and After Effects. She recently spent a summer at Middlebury Language School studying Arabic as a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace. In a past life, she had a small catering business. She once helped start a cooking school in Jerusalem.  

 

78 yr old Daw Nwe Nwe Sann: #academyaward winner and one of #Myanmar’s most famous #filmstars. She received a land donation & opened an old age home for retired #actresses in #Myanmar bc, she says, even the most beautiful, talented actresse
Missed u #Oakland
Already back home that was bananas