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. 

Wisconsin Watch has hired Jack Kelly, who has spent the last two years covering the Capitol for The Cap Times in Madison, as its new statehouse reporter, the nonprofit news organization has announced.

Kelly earned a bachelor's degree from UW-Madison and a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Prior to working at the Cap Times, Kelly was a contributing reporter with Wisconsin Watch reporting on judicial and environmental issues. He has also covered Congress, keeping tabs on South Carolina's congressional delegation for McClatchy.