Amanda Santana

Amanda Santana serves as the Marketing and Development for Voice of OC overseeing online, institutional and major donor giving experiences.

Santana brings decades of work experience in the nonprofit marketing field having worked with the Urban Institute and Radio/TV News Directors Foundation in Washington, D.C. along with internal and marketing communications at Gateway Computers and news organizations like the U.S. Virgin Islands Daily News and El Chicano newspaper in the Inland Empire. More by Amanda Santana

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Erika Taylor

Erika Taylor serves as a Tracy A. Wood reporting fellow and photojournalist at Voice of OC, covering transportation, libraries, culture, and open space across the county.

Taylor started reporting for Voice of OC through Chapman University’s Collegiate News Service in August 2022, working closely with Director of Photography Julie Leopo to produce news images and photo essays. Through her impactful work with photo essays she received a grant through the university’s Marshutz Endowed Journalism Award to begin as an intern in May 2023.

She joined the Tracy A. Wood Fellowship in November 2023 – a memorial fellowship honoring the newsroom’s legendary Civic Editor.
As part of her senior capstone, she investigated online meeting accessibility across public agencies, leading to a series on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s video live streaming practices. Her reporting prompted OCTA to implement video live streaming at board meetings in December 2024. She also started “Free Things to Do This Weekend Across OC” in November 2023, a weekly series featuring free public events from libraries, museums and other public agencies. More by Erika Taylor

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Hosam Elattar

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC/ Report For America reporter covering Anaheim & North Orange County, food insecurity, housing & homelessness, the Arab & Muslim American community and education.

Elattar started at Voice of OC as an intern in January, 2020 and has covered local food banks’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, School board debates on how to teach history, the decades long push by Arab American business owners to recognize Little Arabia and a corruption scandal at Anaheim City Hall.

He has won several awards from the OC Press Club including Best News Story, Best Political Story and Best Religion Story.

Elattar is Egyptian American and has lived in Botswana, Nepal, Uganda, The Dominican Republic and India. More by Hosam Elattar

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Julie Leopo

Julie Leopo is an award-winning photojournalist. Her first photo essay was published with Voice of OC in 2015 and she has been working as a photographer with the publication ever since.

Julie has freelanced for OC Weekly, KCET, Mitú, The California Endowment, Ed Source and Vice. She has won awards for her photo essays featured in Voice of OC, and recognition for her Santa Ana photo essay, “ Lost in the City,” in Berlin, Germany. This particular photo essay also won awards for best photo essay in the 2016 OC Press Awards.

Leopo went to the Orange Coast College Community college where she was enrolled in their photo program. During her studies, she was awarded two scholarships to continue her photo work with a concentration on Social Justice. Her work has been shown on USC’s website and exhibited in a Yale photo-program show. More by Julie Leopo

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Noah Biesiada

Noah Biesiada serves as Voice of OC’s county reporter, covering the county board of supervisors and the $9 billion government they oversee. 

Biesiada started as an intern in July 2019, helping launch Voice of OC’s disaster news coverage and report on the cities of south Orange County such as Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, and other coastal cities like Huntington Beach and San Clemente. 

Currently, Biesiada’s reporting is focused on county agencies such as the sheriff’s department, the courts, and other departments along with the cities of Irvine and Huntington Beach. 

His reporting has led to a host of reforms across Orange County governments including the Orange County Power Authority, the OC Fire Authority and Irvine’s Great Park. 

He’s won several awards from state and local press organizations for his reporting on the county’s disaster preparedness, breaking news and other investigations and won 2023 Online Journalist of the Year from the LA Press Club.

Languages spoken: English 

Contact:  nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org More by Noah Biesiada

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Norberto Santana Jr.

Norberto Santana, Jr. is an experienced investigative reporter, serving as founding publisher and editor-in-chief for Voice of OC, overseeing newsroom, engagement and fundraising operations.

He’s also an award-winning columnist, focusing his efforts on First Amendment issues and local government, being recognized multiple years by the Orange County Press Club as the region’s best columnist.

The LA Press Club has named him a Journalist of the Year (2018) and the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has recognized him as a “Distinguished Journalist.” The California Chicano News Media Association has honored him with a lifetime achievement award and the national News Leaders Association has recognized him for his commitment to diverse staffing and coverage.

Santana is a pioneer in the field of nonprofit news having served on the board of directors for the national trade group for nonprofit newsrooms, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN). He also has served on boards of the national nonprofit advocating investigative journalism, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the California First Amendment advocacy group, CalAware.

In addition to journalism, Santana also teaches public affairs and investigative journalism as an adjunct faculty professor at Chapman University.

Before founding Voice of OC in 2009, Santana was a lead investigative reporter for the Orange County Register, focusing on county government. He spent nearly two decades covering local governments across Southern California, previously as a staff writer at the San Diego Union Tribune and San Bernardino County Sun.

Santana began his journalistic career as an apprentice reporter with Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. covering daily floor action in the U.S. Congress and followed that up with a stint covering the territorial Senate for the U.S. Virgin Islands Daily News.

Languages spoken: English and Spanish

Areas of expertise: Orange County, southern California, investigations, politics, elections, government transparency, Congress, Cuba, Caribbean, Latin America, local government, civic education and reporting education. More by Norberto Santana Jr.

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Spencer Custodio

Spencer Custodio serves as Voice of OC’s civic editor. Like the other reporters, Custodio began as an intern – one of the news organization’s first in 2010.

Custodio was the lead writer during the newsroom’s award winning COVID coverage, which earned a prestigious General Excellence award from the California News Publishers Association in 2022.

He works with reporters in the field on daily civic coverage across Orange County cities and the county government and took over the role just after the death of the newsroom’s legendary Civic Editor, Tracy Wood, in 2020.

After initially covering Fullerton and Irvine as a reporter with Voice of OC, Custodio began focusing on Anaheim City Hall in late 2018. In award-winning coverage throughout the following year, he detailed the shadowy Angel Stadium land sale proposal – a sale that was ultimately canned after it got caught up in a federal corruption probe.

As Civic Editor, he has overseen the ensuing Anaheim corruption scandal coverage that followed former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu’s resignation and guilty plea to federal corruption charges. More by Spencer Custodio

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Theresa Sears

Theresa Sears is Involvement Editor for Voice of OC and works with active residents throughout Orange County helping to lift their voices by facilitating the publication of daily Op-eds from a broad array of perspectives.

Theresa also handles office administration and works to help organize Voice of OC civic training programs and policy events.

With an intimate knowledge of Orange County civic issues, Theresa has worked as an active grassroots community leader on a host of public land use and regional public-benefit issues across the region for the past three decades.

As a solutions oriented activist, she has taken a leadership role in grass roots efforts supporting the public’s right to know and petition their government, community engagement, legal remedies and direct democracy.

Her efforts have preserved Orange County’s fairgrounds, Barham Ranch which is now part of Santiago Oak Regional Park, as well critical open space in East Orange. She’s also led efforts to protect Orange County’s regional park system as a leader with the Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks

Languages spoken: English and some Spanish

Areas of expertise: Community organizing, direct democracy, open government – public oversight, land use, civic engagement and protecting public assets. More by Theresa Sears

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