Akira Kyles

Howard Fellow Akira Kyles is a graduate student and journalist from Prince George's County. She studied at Morgan State University and earned a B.S. in multimedia journalism in 2018.

She won awards from the MDDC Press Association and the North Carolina Press Association for her work in business reporting, food reporting, and arts and culture reporting.

She has reported for the Afro-American newspaper, Baltimore Sun Media Group, Gannett and Bethesda Magazine. She has freelanced for Washington City Paper and the Prince George's Sentinel. She was also a member of the 2018 cohort of the POLITICO Journalism Institute. She serves as culture editor for The Black Explosion, a student-run news outlet on the University of Maryland's campus.

As a graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, she developed a love for data journalism and interactive data visualization. She plans to use the tools she learns as a Howard fellow to pursue a career in investigative journalism focused on environmentalism and/or urban communities.