Eva-Marie Ayala, a Fort Worth native who graduated from North Side High School, will serve her hometown in a newly created management role at the Fort Worth Report.
Ayala, a longtime North Texas journalist noted for her role as Education Lab editor at The Dallas Morning News for the past five years, starts her job as the Report’s inaugural assistant managing editor July 21, working in tandem with managing editor Babs Rodriguez.
“It is really exciting to come back home,” Ayala said. “It feels like the right place to be at the right moment with all the right people.”
Ayala, 48, is well known in education journalism as president of the national Education Writers Association. She also held leadership roles, including vice president and scholarship chair, with Hispanic Communicators DFW, a chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
“Eva is one of the most respected education journalists in the country,” said Chris Cobler, publisher and CEO of the Fort Worth Report. “She brings deep knowledge of Fort Worth and vast journalism experience, alongside a remarkable ability to mentor others.
“It’s truly exciting to see how our leadership team and our entire staff are coming together in our fourth year of serving the community.”
Ayala, who describes herself as a data nerd, a clumsy ukulele player and slow cyclist, has strong Cowtown roots to cheer about.
After all, she was the mascot for the Steers at North Side High — a brand adopted in 1923.
Her upbringing in the city’s Northside neighborhood helped shape her desire to be a journalist.
“Growing up, I thought Fort Worth was the biggest city in the world,” she said. “It’s so huge and beautiful.”
The city, Ayala said, is constantly rewriting its story.
“But it still has all these deep roots that wind back,” she said. “I think that’s one of the things that people love about Fort Worth is that it keeps trying to incorporate where we started into where we’re going. I think that speaks to a lot of people in the community who want to keep that and grow in intentional ways and have a footprint in Texas.”
As a journalism student at Tarrant County College, she became editor of The Collegian student newspaper. She later transferred to the University of Texas at Arlington and was managing editor of that school’s student newspaper, The Shorthorn.
Ayala worked as a Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter for 12 years, where she covered education and other issues in Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, Grand Prairie and Dallas.
She joined The Dallas Morning News in 2012 to report on education before she was tapped in 2020 to run the paper’s nonprofit Education Lab initiative. She also served as interim politics editor for the Dallas newspaper.
Ayala said she is excited to bring her experiences growing up in Fort Worth and decades of journalism experience in North Texas to the Report. She aims to bring critically important content, accountability and solutions-based journalism to the city at a high-stakes moment of booming growth that has surpassed 1 million residents.
“Tarrant County is at the heart of that,” Ayala said. “There’s so much growth. There are so many opportunities, so many challenges. Being able to dig into those and to investigate where the missteps are, where the opportunities and solutions are, to help be able to build that and shape the city is just an amazing opportunity.”
Ayala received several journalism awards, including the best news coverage award from the Education Writers Association in 2022 and a third-place National Headliner Award in 2023. She received extensive leadership training, including through the Maynard 200 executive leaders track program in 2023.
Her education experience will aid in telling Fort Worth stories.
“Education is at the heart of everything,” she said. “Everything goes back to education and everything is so intertwined with that — literacy, housing policy, education policy and health policy. Fort Worth is at this really important moment in our schools and our school district and watching what the state does and how our local leaders are responding. This is part of that moment we keep talking about.”
Sanchez steps up as education editor
Joining Ayala in the Report’s editing ranks is Jacob Sanchez, a founding Report journalist who was promoted from senior education reporter to education editor.
Sanchez, 31, is an award-winning reporter who started his career at the Temple Daily Telegram after internships with The Texas Tribune and Texas Observer. During his five years at the Telegram, Sanchez won first-place journalism awards for Star Breaking News of the Year, deadline writing and business reporting from Texas Managing Editors.
After joining the Report in February 2021, Sanchez received a 2024 editing fellowship at Maynard Institute. He also is an Education Writers Association fellow. He has continued to win statewide journalism awards at the Report, including first-place, third-place and honorable mention awards for infographics as well as second place for Star Reporter of the Year.
Sanchez graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin in 2016 with a political science degree. At St. Ed’s, he was editor of Hilltop Views, the student news site.
“I’m excited to lead our education team, alongside our managing editor and assistant managing editor, during a critical time for schools in Fort Worth,” Sanchez said. “Our school coverage is crucial for parents as they navigate an ever-evolving landscape.”
He also coordinates the Report’s fellowship program for early career journalists.
Milburn new director of audience
Another addition to the Report’s leadership is Forrest Milburn, the new director of audience.
Milburn, who grew up in Richardson, previously served as director of audience for the Houston Landing nonprofit news outlet, which shuttered in mid-May. He also worked in a variety of audience roles at the Miami Herald.
Milburn, 29, graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2019.
As a college student, Milburn was an audience fellow at The Washington Post and The Texas Tribune. He also had reporting internships at four major Texas newspapers, including covering politics for The Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle, reporting on health issues for San Antonio Express-News and legislative reporting at the Austin American-Statesman. He was assistant managing editor and then managing editor of The Daily Texan, UT’s student newspaper, in 2019.
He moved into audience development after discovering his Twitter posts were funny and popular.
“Social media is how I built my own following,” Milburn said. “I like the thrill of being at a protest or an event and documenting the event by live tweeting and recording clips of video and asking protestors questions via social media.”
Milburn said he wants to engage with Fort Worth-area readers and promote new formats to tell stories.
“When Fort Worth Report launched in 2021, I was one of its first one-time donors because I strongly believed then — and now — that North Texas deserves a strong, trusted nonprofit news organization that covers our local communities thoroughly and ambitiously without a paywall,” he said.
“In my role, I consider myself and my team to be bridge builders connecting our reporters’ journalism with the communities that need it most, creating a two-way relationship to ensure we’re serving them effectively.”
New multimedia reporter to boost Report’s video and photos
Maria Crane is the Report’s new multimedia reporter through a partnership with CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Crane, who worked as a freelance photojournalist in North Texas, earned her bachelor’s degree in photojournalism and political science as well as a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Texas.
At UNT, she was photo editor of the North Texas Daily student newspaper and managing editor of Hatch Visuals, a student-operated photo agency. Crane was also an intern for the Denton Record-Chronicle and was a photography fellow for The Texas Tribune.
Crane, 24, plans to boost the Report’s inventory of photos and videos.
“I plan on strengthening the multimedia aspect of the newspaper,” she said. “A picture can tell a thousand words in any language. I hope readers can gain a better sense of their community visually as we move toward incorporating more components.”
Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Related
Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.
Republish This Story
Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details.