Nation Conference Featured Speaker Bios

May 20, 2026

By Ryan Johnson

Katrina Vanden Huevel

Katrina Vanden Huevel is the editor and publisher of The Nation. She was The Nation’s editor from 1995 to 2019 and began as an intern at the magazine in 1978. Vanden Huevel is an award-winning columnist and a frequent contributor to The Guardian and has written over 140 articles for The Washington Post’s opinion section.

Vanden Huevel has authored several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers. As an expert on international affairs and U.S. politics, she is a frequent commentator on global news channels, including ABC, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, WNYC, and Democracy Now.

In 2013, Vanden Huevel received eeceived American Rights at Work’s Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award and the Center for Community Change’s Champion in Activism Award. In 2015, she received the Progressive Congress Leadership Award on behalf of her work “creating pathways of success on behalf of progressive causes.” Vanden Heuvel serves on the boards of the Institute for Policy Studies. Her recent Nation articles focus on big money in U.S. politics, Trump’s economy, and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policy agenda.

Jake Bittle

Jake Bittle is a staff writer at Grist, covering climate change, energy, and natural disasters. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and was an editorial intern for The Nation in 2017. During his internship, Bittle covered workers’ rights issues and the collapse of the U.S. postal service.

In 2023, Bittle released The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration, a book covering the untold stories of climate migration in the United States. Bittle is currently writing a book about Kern County, California, and is a New America fellow.

Bittle has covered climate issues for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and Harper’s. Recently, Bittle has written about the Iran War’s impact on the global energy system, Trump’s plans to shutter FEMA, and the offshore wind industry.

Clarissa León

Clarissa León is an American writer, editor, journalist, and educator who serves as the Deputy Editor of Documented, an independent non-profit newsroom reporting on and for immigrant communities in New York City. Originally from Reno, Nevada, León graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, and was an intern for The Nation in 2010.

Before Documented, León worked on a labor beat at Payday Report, a Pittsburgh-based publication focused on covering local and national labor issues that mainstream media organizations do not.

León has worked as a freelance reporter, editor, and writer for over ten years, contributing to publications such as Food and Wine Magazine, Slate, Alternet, Newsweek, and The Daily Beast. León received an MFA in non-fiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019 and served as a visiting lecturer from 2021-2022. Her thesis focused on researching her Spanish ancestry through Sephardic Jewish migration from the Iberian Peninsula & Madrid to the Antioquia provinces in Colombia, South America, and eventually to her hometown of Reno, Nevada.

Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is a British-born journalist based in Brooklyn, currently serving as a columnist for The Intercept, where she covers American politics and the Trump administration. Lennard received a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge and a Master’s degree in digital media from Columbia University.

Lennard has worked in editorial roles at Vice News, The New York Times, Salon, and Politico. Her journalism and writing have appeared in The Nation, Bookforum, and Dissent. Lennard has released two books, Violence: Humans and Dark Times, co-authored by Brad Evans, and Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life.

Lennard is currently the Associate Director of Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program at The New School. She is currently working on her next book on how to conceptualize certainty and uncertainty for Verso Books.

Ken Klippenstein

Ken Klippenstein is an independent journalist who covers national security, U.S. politics, activism, corporate controversies, and the media. He is the founder of Klip News, along with journalist William Arking. Klippenstein’s solo Subtack has garnered over 200,000 subscribers.

Klippenstein previously worked as a reporter for The Intercept, the DC correspondent for The Nation, a senior investigative reporter for The Young Turks Network, and as a contributor for The Daily Beast.

Klippenstein’s recent reporting has focused on I.C.E using smart glasses to collect intelligence on Americans, a new national counterterrorism strategy for Leftists, and the use of A.I. in the military.

Amy Littlefield

Amy Littlefield is the abortion access correspondent for The Nation and a career freelance investigative reporter focusing on the intersection of religion and health care. Littlefield has recently reported on what the pro-choice movement can learn from the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the radical imagination of abortion rights activists.

Before joining The Nation, Littlefield worked as an investigative reporter at Rewire, an independent non-profit newsroom committed to reporting on the full spectrum of reproductive and sexual health, rights, and justice. Littlefield also worked as a producer at Democracy Now!

Littlefield’s recent book Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights was released in March and covers the secret killers and hidden motives behind the death of abortion rights.

Regina Mahone

Regina Mahone is a senior editor and a journalist covering reproductive issues. She is the founder of Repro Nation, a monthly newsletter featuring a collection of stories, analysis, and resources on the global struggle for reproductive freedom. In June 2023, she co-edited with her Nation colleague Emily Douglas a special double issue of the print magazine on reproductive rights and justice, titled Body Politics.

Mahone has written for publications including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Rewire News Group, and Romper. Before joining The Nation, Mahone was the vice president of editorial content at Courier Newsroom and previously worked as the managing editor at Rewire News Group.

Mahone co-authored Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve – Centering People of Color Through Research, Interviews, and Activism with Renee Bracey Sherman in 2024 for Amistad/HarperCollins, and co-hosts the podcast The A Files: A Secret History of Abortion.

Sophie Hurwitz

Sophie Hurwitz is a breaking news reporter at Mother Jones. In 2022, Hurwitz was an editorial intern for The Nation in 2022. During her internship, they covered Amazon workers’ protests and Brittney Griner’s detention. Before their internship, they worked as a news reporter for The St. Louis American, was an editorial intern at Narratively, and editor-in-chief for The Wellesley News. Hurwitz has worked as a Ben Bagdikian Editorial Fellow at Mother Jones, a fact-checker for The New Yorker, and a Climate Solutions Reporting Fellow at Grist. Hurwitz has written about asylum seekers in New York, energy policy revisions, and policy impacting transgender youth.

Miguel Salazar

Miguel Salazar is a fact checker and writer for The New York Times. Salazar was previously the research director for The Nation and was an editorial intern in 2017. Salazar wrote about soccer and domestic violence, politics in Colombia, and issues surrounding Hispanic Heritage Month.

Salazar also worked as a reporter and researcher for The New Republic and fact-checked the James Beard Award-winning investigation “A Killing Season” by Boyce Upholt.
At The New York Times, Salazar has written numerous obituaries, book reviews, and book lists and run-downs.