Austin Fast Email & Phone Number

Phoenix, Arizona, United States

• Pitch and report data-driven investigations for NPR, partnering with national and regional correspondents to emphasize national news’ impact upon local audiences.
• Gather relevant data through web scraping, API and public records requests.
• Conduct story research and interview sources to produce audio and digital enterprise stories.

Tempe, Arizona, United States

• Pitched, reported and produced spot news pieces for radio and KJZZ.org.
• Mentored students 10 hours weekly at KJZZ's two youth media centers from Aug. 2019 through March 2020. Also produced recommendations for strengthening this community service by analyzing similar youth journalism.

St Petersburg, Florida, United States

• Reported, hosted and produced "Three Little Words," a five-part podcast revisiting a groundbreaking 1996 print series on a local family's secret struggle with an AIDS diagnosis.
• Reported, hosted and produced the weekly “Coronavirus in Florida” podcast to share facts on the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Produced the weekly “WriteLane” podcast, reported audio spot news pieces to accompany print stories, and conducted all-staff trainings on audio storytelling.

Cincinnati, Ohio

• Ensured hundreds of developers, project managers and scrum masters have the proper equipment and environment within Cincinnati's Atrium II building to develop real-world solutions and create great products, online.
• Collaborated within Kroger Digital's project portfolio management office on procurement, purchasing and HR onboarding.

Dillingham, Alaska

• Hosted the daily Bristol Bay Fisheries Report, cultivating sources on the beat who could contribute regularly.
• Reported breaking news and feature stories on the world's largest wild salmon fishery in Dillingham, Alaska.

Cincinnati, Ohio

• Co-founded and hosted WCPO Lounge Acts, a video podcast featuring intimate in-studio performances and interviews from outstanding musical artists.
• Wrote daily breaking news and monthly features for WCPO.com.
• Integrated multimedia content from television broadcasts onto WCPO.com by coordinating among reporters, producers and photographers.
• Experimented with WCPO's social media strategy and online presence to increase audience engagement.

Oxford, Ohio

• Guided students through producing multimedia content and stories for a website I designed and maintained.
• Produced radio features for use with the Miami Public Radio Project.

Copyedited English language documents (essays, academic papers, memos, proposals, resumes, cover letters, manuscripts, editorial copy, etc.) to return grammatically accurate documents to clients on a timely basis.

Skopje, Macedonia

• Directed activities within the high school English Language Department of seven instructors at Nova International Schools in Skopje, Macedonia.
• Planned, implemented and assessed curriculum for 9th and 10th grade English literature and English as a Second Language courses.

Peace Corps Macedonia

• Won three European Union grants and wrote daily blog posts as Web Content Coordinator at Mladiinfo in Skopje. Mladiinfo is a nonprofit that helps connect disadvantaged young people with free educational opportunities.
• Designed and conducted cultural adjustment and diversity sessions as a cross-cultural facilitator for new Peace Corps volunteers.
• Before coming to Mladiinfo, collaborated with six English teachers at St. Cyril and Methodius High School to teach English as a foreign language in Negotino, Macedonia. Also won and oversaw a grant-funded journalism.
• Taught intensive pre-departure orientation programs in Serbia and Macedonia to prepare Balkan students to spend a year in the U.S. as exchange students in 2012 and 2013.
• Offered extra classes on writing in English to help students prepare for the final state exams for graduation, took photographs for Habitat for Humanity-Macedonia, and organized other various community service projects.

Berkeley, CA

• Placed at California Watch as part of the Dow Jones News Fund copy editing internship program.
• Copy edited daily blog posts and stories for californiawatch.org.
• Assisted with the Politics Verbatim project - a searchable database containing all appearances, speeches and remarks by both the Democratic and Republican candidates for November's election for California governor.

Provided supplemental education and tutoring assistance for students at Miami University in botany and Italian courses.

• As editor in chief, oversaw all editorial and organizational aspects of publishing the biweekly newspaper, including proofreading all stories, managing community relations, ensuring quality and investigating methods to.
• Also served as a copy editor and reporter.

• Generated story ideas, wrote features and ensured the quality of English translations of KosovaLive's Albanian language content.
• Follow the growing pains of a brand new nation as it struggled to find its place in Europe as an interning reporter based in the capital city of Prishtina, Kosovo.
• Interviewed victims of the 1999 genocide, visited a farmer in a remote region of Kosovo and met small business owners while reporting on humanitarian, economic and social issues.

• Wrote news briefs as a reporter at Miami University's NPR member station.
• Brainstormed show topics, wrote scripts, edited audio and pre-interviewed guests for an hourlong, weekly forum show to allow the community to weigh in on local issues.
• Miami transferred operation to Cincinnati Public Radio in March 2009.

Master Of Arts - Ma, Investigative Journalism

Activities and Societies: Investigative Reporters and Editors, Association of Independents in Radio Recognized as Outstanding Graduate.

Ba, International Studies, Journalism, Minor In Italian Studies

Activities and Societies: Editor in chief at The Miami Student newspaper, freelance editor at Miami Quarterly magazine, member of Men's.