Ayana Archie

Ayana Archie is a breaking news reporter at The Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. She graduated from the University of Maryland-College Park’s Merrill School of Journalism in May 2020.

Her love for journalism stemmed from a natural gravitation toward writing. She’d write whatever she could — short stories, plays, even a manuscript for a children’s book. Her first journalism experience was reporting for her high school’s newspaper and the culture magazine. This experience carried on to college, where she was able to diversify her storytelling through other skills, such as photojournalism, podcasting, and videography.

She is a former arts and culture reporter for her university’s independent student newspaper, The Diamondback. She has previous experience at CNN Digital, where she covered a range of topics, including social issues, climate and the Capital Gazette shooting. She served as the president of her university’s award-winning National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) student chapter her senior year.

In 2019, she participated in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, as well as interned on the metro desk at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In the fall of that year, she completed her senior capstone as a Capital News Service reporter, covering Maryland politics on Capitol Hill. Before taking on a full-time role at The Courier Journal, she wrapped up a spring internship at CNNPolitics.com, where she conducted research for the digital team.