Editor-in-Chief Audrey Cooper sent the following announcement to The Banner’s staff:

I’m excited to announce that we’ve hired a wonderful reporter, Shayla Colon, as the newest member of our breaking news team.

Shayla most recently worked as a reporter for The New York Times on the Headway team, which focuses on deeply reported stories about potential solutions to the world’s most intransigent problems. On that team, Shayla developed a project exploring violence prevention efforts across the United States. Before her Headway gig, she worked as a fellow on the Times’ metro staff.

She has also covered real estate and infrastructure at FundFire, a subsidiary of the Financial Times, and worked as a two-year Hearst Fellow, serving rotations at the Albany Times Union and the chain’s Connecticut papers.

Shayla grew up in the Bronx and graduated from New York’s Quinnipiac University. She’s leaving her hometown to move to Baltimore next month and starts here on April 27.

— Audrey