Zach Kessel is a 2023 graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he led the campus Alexander Hamilton Society chapter. He is a 2023 Media Fellow with the Vandenberg Coalition and, in addition to National Review, his writing has appeared in publications including The Washington Post and The Washington Free Beacon.
Luther Abel is a graduate of Lawrence University, a two-time NR editorial intern, and a veteran of the US Navy. He is a proud native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Dominic Pino is the Thomas L. Rhodes Journalism Fellow at National Review Institute. He was previously a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism and a National Review editorial intern. He holds a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in economics from George Mason University and was an MA Fellow at the Mercatus Center. During college, he was opinion editor of Fourth Estate, Mason’s student paper. He was a 2020 Political Studies Fellow with the Hertog Foundation and has had past internships with ALEC, The Heritage Foundation, and Tax Foundation. Originally from Wisconsin, he currently resides in Fairfax, Virginia.
Jimmy Quinn, National Review’s national security correspondent, was previously a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow at National Review Institute. He is a participant in the Council on Foreign Relations’s Young Professionals Briefing Series and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’s Media Fellowship. Politico Playbook, RealClearPolitics, and Taiwan’s top newspapers, in addition to others, have cited his scoops on foreign policy and national security. Jimmy graduated summa cum laude from the Columbia University-Sciences Po Dual BA program.
Cameron Hilditch is a graduate of English Language and Literature from Magdalen College, Oxford. He was previously the Investigative Research Officer at the Oxford Union Society, working on interviews with several heads of state, leading cultural figures, and the former director of the C.I.A. He was also appointed personal liaison to ex-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, and the Head of the British Civil Service, Lord Robert Kerslake. He is a member of the Oxford University Conservative Association and, before going up to Oxford, revived and edited his school newspaper. He is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
John Hirschauer is a recent William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism and a 2018 graduate from Fairfield University. As an undergraduate, he won a national essay contest put on by the Buckley Program at Yale University, hosted a weekly FM radio show, and wrote a weekly column in The Fairfield Mirror. His work has appeared at National Review, the New York Times, OnePeterFive, and other outlets. John is a volunteer at Southbury Training School, a residential institution for adults with profound intellectual and developmental disabilities in his hometown, where he sits on an advocacy group’s board of directors.
Madeleine Kearns, a recent William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism, is now a staff writer at National Review. A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Kearns was a 2017 summer intern at The Spectator and became the first intern on record to contribute a cover story. Her work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Telegraph, Standpoint, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman, The Catholic Herald, and Heterodox Academy. She has appeared on the BBC and Fox Nation, as well as other nationally syndicated outlets. She is a trained singer.
Theodore Kupfer worked for National Review in an editorial capacity and was formerly a WFB and Rhodes fellow at NRI. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and hails from central Pennsylvania. He previously worked at Bridgewater Associates.
Alexandra DeSanctis is a staff writer for National Review and a visiting fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. A graduate from Notre Dame, she was a past William F. Buckley Jr. fellow at National Review Institute.
Austin Yack graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in English. He worked as a student reporter for the UCSB Daily Nexus and The College Fix, where many of his articles were featured on National Review, Fox News, and The Blaze. In the summer of 2015, Austin served as a Student Free Press Association Fellow at The Hill Newspaper. In addition to reporting, he studied abroad at the University of Cambridge, published academic papers on 4Humanities.org, and interned at the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office and Young America’s Foundation. Austin was active with the College Republicans during his time at UCSB. He held the position of Administrative Vice-Chair of the California College Republicans statewide board as well as Vice President of the UCSB College Republicans chapter. Austin was a William F. Buckley fellow with National Review Institute from 2016-2017.
Elaina Plott is currently a staff writer at The Atlantic. Formerly, Elaina was a staff writer at Washingtonian and a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism with National Review Institute. She is regularly featured in Pacific Standard, GQ, the Daily Beast, the New York Observer, Harper’s BAZAAR and Town & Country. She is a 2015 graduate of Yale University.
Ryan Lovelace is the Supreme Court reporter for the Washington Examiner. He previously reported for National Review and was the William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism with National Review Institute. He has also written for the Weekly Standard and Daily Caller.
Alec Torres was an NRI Buckley Fellow in National Review‘s New York office in 2013, during which time he was frequent contributor to NationalReview.com.In 2014, he joined the office of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speechwriter and communications assistant.Alec graduated from Yale College in 2013, earning a degree in Humanities with Honors. During school, he wrote for the College’s premier conservative magazine, Light & Truth, traveled the world in America’s oldest underclassmen a cappella group, The Spizzwinks, and debated in the hall of the Conservative Party, an organization honored to count National Review’s storied founder as an alumnus. In 2011, Alec became one of the first members of the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale, a program devoted to introducing much needed intellectual diversity to a one-sided campus.
Betsy Woodruff Swan was an NRI Buckley Fellow in 2012, working from the New York offices of National Review, and again in 2013, working from the magazine’s Washington office. She wrote for both the print magazine and NationalReview.com and made numerous national television appearances, including on Fox Business and MSNBC.In 2014, Ms. Woodruff joined the Washington Examiner as a political writer based in Washington, DC and she is currently a national political reporter for Politico and a contributor at MSNBC.Ms. Swan graduated cum laude from Hillsdale College in May 2012 with a degree in English. A member of the school’s Dow Journalism Program, she served as copy editor, circulation manager, reporter, opinions editor, and City News editor for The Hillsdale Collegian, and won numerous awards for her writing and reporting, including a Michigan Press Association award for a feature piece on students converting to Catholicism. While an undergraduate, Ms. Woodruff held intern positions and wrote for the Toledo Free Press, the Washington Examiner, and National Review.
Patrick Brennan was a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow at National Review Institute from 2011 to 2013. He covered a special election in New York’s ninth congressional district, sparred with Senator Rand Paul over who should run the Federal Reserve, and became very familiar with Mitt Romney’s tax returns. He later became the opinion editor at National Review. In addition to editing for the magazine and the website, he wrote on economic and fiscal policy, along with a sprinkling of foreign affairs. He also worked as a part-time assistant for Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. In 2011, he received a degree in Classics with high honors from Harvard College, where he was managing editor of The Harvard Salient, competed on the sailing team, and served as chancellor of the Knights of Columbus council. In 2013, he was a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute. His work has been cited by, among others, Forbes, The Economist, The Week, and Real Clear Politics. He has appeared on Canada’s Sun News Network, Al Jazeera America, Mike Huckabee’s radio show, and other radio programs.
Brian Bolduc was a Buckley fellow with National Review Institute in 2011. Brian later served as Speechwriter for Vice President Mike Pence.
Robert Costa, National Review Institute’s first William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism, is currently a national political reporter for the Washington Post. After his fellowship, Robert had risen to National Review’s Washington editor, managing NR’s Capitol Hill bureau and covering the White House, Congress, and national campaigns. He holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in politics from the University of Cambridge.Politico called Costa a “breakout star” of the 2012 presidential campaign. Washingtonian, Washington Life, and Washington Monthly have also called him one of the best reporters on the political scene.Costa’s first full-time job in journalism was the Buckley Fellowship at National Review Institute. In this unique opportunity, Costa worked at NR’s New York headquarters, assisting editor Rich Lowry with reporting projects and political coverage. He led NR’s coverage of the Obamacare debate on Capitol Hill, wrote several stories for the magazine, and covered Scott Brown’s historic Senate campaign. Costa is a member of the University of Notre Dame’s advisory board for journalism and contributed a chapter to Barack Obama and the New America (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013), a book edited by Dr. Larry Sabato.