Yolanda's Crossing

Stella M. Chávez is a staff writer for The Dallas Morning News where she covers neighborhoods and diversity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Chávez began her career at The (Lakeland) Ledger covering small towns in Polk County, Florida and the migrant farm worker community. She also wrote the paper’s first weekly column about diversity called “Faces of Polk.”  After leaving The Ledger, she joined the staff of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where she covered local government as well as immigrant communities. She helped cover several national stories, including the Elian Gonzalez saga and the 2000 election debacle.  A native Texan, Chávez graduated in 1995 from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Paul Meyer has worked as a government and general assignments reporter since 2003 for The Dallas Morning News.  His stories have included an investigation into failures to protect human trafficking victims, coverage of the plight of Palestinian asylum seekers and reporting from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Meyer earned his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 2000, and prior to entering journalism, he lived and worked in Russia, Mongolia, China and Nepal.

Lara Solt joined The Dallas Morning News as a staff photographer in 2003.  Before coming to Dallas, Lara freelanced in the New York City area.  Previously she worked as a staff photographer for Copley Newspapers / Sun Publications in the Chicago area. Solt has won multiple awards in Pictures of the Year, World Press Photo and other competitions. She is a graduate of Ohio University¹s School of Visual Communications. Her primary interest has always been storytelling, with a focus on community photojournalism, and most recently with multimedia.