The Guardian has announced Cris Seda Chabrier and Austin “Auzzy” Byrdsell as its 2026 Scott Trust fellows. Over the next year, the Guardian says they’ll have the opportunity to embed with different teams and desks across its US newsroom – from audience and visuals to politics, environment and lifestyle – gaining multiplatform reporting experience, training and mentorship from the Guardian’s veteran global staff.
The paid fellowship was established as part of the Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement program, the Guardian’s 10-year restorative justice initiative in response to its founders’ historical ties to transatlantic slavery. Funded by the Scott Trust, the fellowship supports emerging journalists from underrepresented backgrounds, ensuring the Guardian’s newsroom better reflects the communities that it serves. It is an expansion of the UK-based Scott Trust Bursary scheme and is a core pillar of the Guardian Foundation’s work to create pathways into the journalism industry for new and diverse talent, says the publisher.
Dana Canedy, US managing editor of the Guardian, said: “Investing in emerging talent is at the heart of the Guardian’s mission and essential for our success. We couldn’t be happier to welcome Cris Seda Chabrier and Austin “Auzzy” Byrdsell as our 2026 Scott Trust fellows. Both Cris and Auzzy bring a sharp reporting lens and a deep commitment to community-driven stories. We look forward to working alongside them – providing the mentorship and training to help elevate the next stage of their already bright careers.”
Cris Seda Chabrier is a bilingual investigative reporter and photojournalist. They are an alum of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at Cuny, graduating in 2024 from the university’s bilingual journalism program. Previously, Chabrier was a reporting fellow with the Tucson Sentinel largely focusing on immigration. Their work has also appeared in Politico, Mada Masr, New York City News Service, Metro, and Verite News, among other news outlets.
Chabrier graduated summa cum laude from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. During their time as a researcher, Chabrier was the recipient of academic fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and Williams College in Massachusetts.
Austin “Auzzy” Byrdsell is an alum of Morehouse College. For the last two years, he was part of the Boston Globe’s Development Fellowship, rotating across various departments to help cover major news stories, including the cannabis industry’s phenomenon in Massachusetts, Boston’s Haitian immigration housing crisis and the Boston Celtics’ 2024 championship. He has previously interned at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reporting on breaking news, local government developments and higher education. He has also done editorial work for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR and Capital B Atlanta.
While at Morehouse, Byrdsell served as editor-in-chief of the Maroon Tiger and was the founder of the Morehouse College Association of Black Journalists. He is originally from Atlanta and has lived in Germany, Thailand and South Korea.
Chabrier and Byrdsell represent the second Scott Trust fellowship cohort, following inaugural fellows Briana Ellis-Gibbs and Marina Dunbar, both of whom have since been hired full-time by the Guardian’s New York newsroom.
Keep up-to-date with publishing news: sign up here for InPubWeekly, our free weekly e-newsletter.
