Meet the Bloomfield Info Project’s newest team members

The Bloomfield Information Project is pleased to announce the addition of two community members to our staff! Please join us in welcoming Nikki Villafane and Olivia Rizzo.

Nikki and Olivia joined us in September as Civic Info Producers, each with key areas of focus.

Nikki is helping us produce the news and information services we offer. With her help, we’ll be able to expand the resources available on our website, improve the quality of news we provide in the Daily Bulletin, and begin to produce more original news and reporting.

Olivia is helping us develop our info hub and community reporter program. With her help, we’ll be able to increase local government transparency and begin creating training materials for our first community reporter training series next year.

Nikki is a 15-year resident of Bloomfield, originally from the midwest. She’s worked for more than 15 years in human resources and staffing and recently received her B.A. in Television and Digital Media from Montclair State University with a minor in Latino and Latin American Studies.

Olivia was born and raised in Cedar Grove, just up Bloomfield Ave. She’s a freelance journalist with a B.A. from The College of New Jersey in Journalism/Professional Writing and Women’s and Gender Studies. She’s worked in editorial roles for seven years, most recently at NJ.com as a Local Government Reporter.

Both positions are supported by funding from the Civic Information Consortium, a first-of-its-kind state fund created to address the growing problem of news deserts and misinformation and support more informed communities in New Jersey.

The Consortium’s grant to the Bloomfield Information Project will allow us to pilot a resident-reporter corps to address our community’s local news and information needs.