Veteran journalist Weinstein to join Henrico Citizen as community vitality reporter; Hardy to remain as education/government reporter

Veteran journalist Dina Weinstein will join the Henrico Citizen in July as its new community vitality reporter, through a partnership with Report for America.

Weinstein will cover the inter-related issues of housing, health and transportation in Henrico for the Citizen as an RFA corps member. She is one of 107 full-time journalists who will be placed into beats in a total of 101 newsrooms nationwide through RFA, a journalism service initiative.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to add a talented and experienced journalist like Dina to our growing team,” Citizen Publisher Tom Lappas said. “She’ll be covering three topics that our readers have been urging us for several years to examine more thoroughly. She already knows this community well, and her reporting will help better inform this region about a plethora of key issues related to each of these topics. Dina’s approach is thorough but easy for readers to digest, and we know that she will be an impactful addition for us and this community.”

The Citizen becomes the first Virginia newsroom to have two separate beats accepted into the RFA program, which helps fund the positions and provides ongoing training and support for corps members and host newsrooms. In 2021 though RFA, the Citizen added a full-time education reporting position, which has been filled for the past two years by Liana Hardy.

RFA supports corps members positions for as long as three years. During her two years with the Citizen, Hardy has written 200 articles as part of her comprehensive coverage of education in Henrico County.

Although the Citizen's education reporting position through RFA will expire in July, Hardy will remain with the Citizen on a full-time basis to continue her education coverage while also covering general government issues.

“Liana has been an outstanding addition to our team and someone whose thoughtful approach to journalism is evident in her work,” Lappas said. “Her coverage has kept our community aware and engaged about countless education issues during the past two years. She’ll bring that same level of focus and thoroughness to her coverage of county government, and we’re excited that she will be continuing with our newsroom.”

Both reporters will begin their new beats July 7.

Weinstein has written for the Citizen as a freelance journalist for several years and most recently has covered refugees for the publication as part of an ongoing yearlong series “Henrico: County of Refuge” funded through a grant from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

In 2021, she earned a first-place award from the Virginia Press Association in 2021 for her coverage of evictions in the county for the Citizen in the months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weinstein also has worked as a freelance journalist for the New York Times, Richmond Magazine, Style Weekly, the Chesterfield Observer, RichmondInno, National Public Radio, Florida Public Radio, Radio Pennsylvania, Pacifica Radio, Voice of America Radio, Public Exchange Radio, Making Contact Radio, WHPK, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Bnai B’rith Magazine, The Times of Israel and The Jewish Forward, among others.

She also has spent time as a writer for Virginia Commonwealth University, as a board operator and news producer for WRIR radio in Richmond and as editor and publisher of Richmond on the Cheap. She previously worked as a newsroom assistant at Miami Date College in Florida, where she assisted with the daily management of the school’s college newspaper, The Reporter, and mentored student journalists.

She also has taught courses at Virginia Union University, Miami Date College and the University of Miami School of Communication. In 2016, she earned a first-place award for religion coverage from the Florida Society of Professional Journalists and also holds awards from the Religion News Writers Association and American Jewish Press Association.

Western is a graduate of Boston University and holds a master of science in journalism from Columbia University.

Hardy has earned four awards for education writing from the Virginia Press Association during the past two years. She is a graduate of Georgetown University who joined the Citizen shortly after college, in July 2023.

Make a tax-deductible contribution to support the Citizen's new community vitality reporting position by clicking here; Report for America will match all donations up to a total of $25,000.