Sara Burnett joined the Daily Herald in 1998. She is a three-time winner of the Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism. Burnett also was part of a Daily Herald team that won an Associated Press award for a series on the Brown's Chicken & Pasta murders. She is fluent in Spanish and teaches classes to Spanish-speakers part-time. A graduate of the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, where she majored in Spanish and communication, Burnett earned a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Christopher Hankins joined the Daily Herald in 1996, after working for several Midwest newspapers and the Associated Press. Hankins won a Lisagor award last year for spot news photography, several Illinois Associated Press awards and was named Michigan College Photographer of the Year in 1993. Hankins honed his Spanish-speaking skills while reporting on this project in Mexico. He earned a journalism degree from Michigan State University in 1994.

Natasha Korecki joined the Daily Herald in 1997. She won a Lisagor award and two Associated Press awards, each for breaking news coverage. Korecki, whose parents are from Argentina, is fluent in Spanish. She is a 1996 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she majored in journalism. She earned a master's degree in Public Affairs Reporting at the University of Illinois at Springfield in 1997.