Ryan “R.L.” Nave is a veteran journalist working in the South. He has written extensively about politics, race, equity, and criminal justice, and their intersections. He previously served as editor-in-chief of Reckon (Advance Local) and the nonprofit Mississippi Today. He has also been an editor and reporter at newspapers in Jackson, Miss., and Springfield, Ill. He has contributed to Ebony, The Source, The Root, and Serial/The New York Times. He and his teams have earned state and national journalism awards, including the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism and a national Edward R. Murrow Award. He has held fellowships at Columbia University, City University of New York, the University of Colorado Boulder and Northwestern.