Ryanne Mena is a data team intern at ProPublica through the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.

Previously, she was a newsroom intern at LAist, an NPR affiliate station in Los Angeles, where she reported on education, mental health, the environment, labor unions and the arts. She uncovered how a local school district was sitting on a large donation of Minion Beanie Babies.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge, in 2022. Before graduating, she was a part of NPR’s NextGen program, where she reported on how the changing climate affects nature’s pollinators, bees. During her time at The Daily Sundial, CSUN’s student-run news publication, she spearheaded a story focusing on the experiences of people formerly detained at an ICE detention center in Adelanto, California. That story was honored with an award from the Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

While attending Santa Monica College, where she earned an associate degree in communication studies, she was a part of the campus’ student-run newspaper, The Corsair. There she reported on a website that blacklisted students involved in a pro-Palestinian club on campus. She also reported on migrant caravans arriving at the southern border in 2018 and 2019 for the student publication.