Javier Garza

Knight International Journalism Fellow, Mexico
Javier Garza began his career as a reporter and editor at the newspaper Reforma in Mexico City and was deputy editor of the Spanish-language newspaper Rumbo de Austin (Texas).

From 2006-2013, Garza served as the editorial director at El Siglo de Torreon in northern Mexico, which was the target of several attacks by organized crime groups. In response, Garza developed security protocols for reporters and editors that are now available to other news organizations in Mexico and Latin America.

He also served as an advisor on newsroom safety for the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA). For the past five years, Garza has trained journalists in security and protection measures and lectured about violence against journalists in universities and media organizations in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Garza completed his bachelor’s degree in communications from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and his master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.​

Nancy Montoya

Columbia Dupont Silver Baton Winning Journalist at Arizona Public Media
Nancy Montoya is a Columbia Dupont Silver Baton winning journalist with more than 35 years of major market and network newsroom experience. Nancy is currently part of the Arizona Public Media news team. Her area of expertise is Immigration and U.S./Mexico Border issues. Nancy's family owns the oldest working ranch in Arizona. Following the 1854 Gadsden Purchase that changed the U.S./Mexico Border, the family ranch went from being in Mexico, to being in the U.S., almost overnight.

Nancy pioneered a Latin America News Bureau that included 15 other TV newsrooms from around the country. Her reporting on the "Death Squads" in El Salvador and Nicaragua garnered her the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton. Nancy has won 6 Emmys, a Peabody, and several other international broadcast awards for her reporting.

Nancy is currently a volunteer, working with students on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. It is part of the PBS Newshour Student Reporting Lab, a project that connects students with public broadcasting mentors, an innovative journalism curriculum and an online collaborative space to develop digital media, critical thinking and communication skills while producing original news reports.

Curt Prendergast

General Assignment Reporter at the Arizona Daily Star
Curt Prendergast covers the border for the Arizona Daily Star, where he has worked since June 2015 reporting on all manner of things. Before that, he covered the border and the residents of Santa Cruz County for the Nogales International from 2012 to 2015.

He has a master’s degree in Latin American Studies and Journalism from the University of Arizona. He grew up in Ohio and Indiana and has lived in Philadelphia, Argentina, and Brazil.

His main interests with regard to the border are showing how residents deal with living near an international border and how forces from far away often shape how their lives unfold.

Fernanda Santos

Phoenix Bureau Chief for The New York Times
Fernanda Santos covers Arizona and New Mexico as the Phoenix bureau chief for The New York Times. She was previously based in New York, where she covered the New York City public school system; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s City Hall; Queens, New York City’s most ethnically diverse borough; and the rural and suburban communities of New York State.​

Ms. Santos holds a bachelor’s degree in social communications from Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, her home country, and a master’s degree in print journalism from Boston University.

She came to the United States in 1998 and, prior to joining The Times, she worked at The Republican in Springfield, Mass.; The Eagle-Tribune in Lawrence, Mass.; The Daily News of New York; and People Magazine. She co-wrote "Latinos in the United States: A Resource Guide for Journalists," published in 2001, and traveled to Colombia in 2005 as a fellow for the International Reporting Project. She authored “The Fire Line,” the story of the 19 Granite Mountain hotshots who died in the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013. She speaks four languages – English, Portuguese, Spanish and French – and is trying to learn a fifth, Italian.