Jelissa Burns is the new regional food and drink reporter for the USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin, based in Appleton. She will cover northeastern Wisconsin from Fond du Lac to Door County.

As the regional food and drink reporter, Burns will focus on highlighting signature foods and drinks from local restaurants, diving deeper into the history of restaurants and their owners, and covering all things food-related for local festivals and events. Burns previously worked as the streetwise reporter for the Sheboygan Press.

Seasoned adventurer and journalist Eilee Heikenen-Weiss has joined the Sun Prairie Star as a local government reporter, the newspaper has announced.

A Madison native, Heikenen-Weiss returns to Dane County after nearly a decade traveling the globe as an adventure tour guide with the active travel company, Backroads. Prior to that role, she worked for seven years as a producer for WBEZ 91.5 FM (formerly Chicago Public Radio).

Katie Garcia, a Sheboygan native who graduated from Mount Mary University in May with a bachelor's degree in writing for new media, has joined Adams Publishing Group as a reporter, the company has announced.

In her new role, she will serve as the community and police and courts reporter for The (Janesville) Gazette, Milton Courier and the Beloit Daily News. During college, she served as a peer tutor for the English Department and helped create and launch the first edition of Arches, the student paper, as a creative journal.

Ava Buttacavoli, a journalism student who is expected to graduate in December, has joined the reporting staff of Hometown News Group and the Daily Jefferson County Union, the news organizations have announced.

A native of Chicago, Buttacavoli is currently a senior online at the University of Maine, where she is majoring in journalism and English, with a concentration in news writing and a minor in German. She recently relocated to Madison.