Jenae Barnes is from Ashburn, Virginia, and graduated from Briar Woods High School in 2016. As a student ambassador part of the CAMPUS program, she developed her leadership skills and explored opportunities to further her academic career as a first-generation college student. Upon graduation, Jenae received a Loudoun Laurels Foundation scholarship for her community service, student involvement, and extracurriculars including competitive figure skating, piano performance, and exchange abroad. 

As the first member of her family to go to college debt-free, she attended Northern Virginia Community College, then transferred into George Mason University where received her bachelor’s degree in Global Affairs with a concentration in environmental sustainability. There, she competed as part of the Mason Speech and Debate team, landed her first journalism internship at ABC News in Washington, D.C., and became news director for Mason’s cable network. She graduated in 2020. 

After building her nose for news, Jenae attended Columbia Journalism School in 2021, where she learned how to write stories, report breaking news, and produce radio and video segments. After graduating in 2022, she held internships at Forbes, Apple News, and ABC News in New York.  Now, she has a full-time role as a health and environment reporter at Capital B News, a Black-led nonprofit newsroom covering Black communities across the country. There, she covers health inequities and environmental justice stories on the ground that disproportionately affect African-American communities, While at Capital B, she received a Pulitzer Center Fellowship, where she is leading a series on Black women and maternal health in northwest Indiana.