Nicole Caruth

Nicole Caruth

Nicole J. Caruth

Class of 2025

I’m Nicole, a freelance writer and journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

My writing has appeared in ARTnews, Civil Eats, C Magazine, Gastronomica, Public Art Review, two Phaidon Press volumes and the anthology Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing. I’m currently a reporting fellow with the Pulitzer Center.

A former curator of contemporary art, I pivoted to journalism a few years ago and am currently wrapping up my master’s degree at the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, focusing on narrative writing and public health.

My recent reporting covers a wide range of topics, from aging and agriculture to food and the climate crisis. I’ve written about a network of Black rice farmers in the South, community reactions to Oakland’s first environmental plan, a cooking class to lower dementia rates for Black and Latinx folks, AI-powered mental health bots, and more.

For my thesis, I’m writing about mental health by following one Black woman’s journey through the Silicon Valley tech industry beginning shortly after the Civil Rights Movement.

You can see my work at the link under my profile picture or at www.nicolecaruth.com.

EDUCATION

  • M.J., Journalism, University of California, Berkeley (‘25)

  • M.A., Curatorial Studies, Bard College

  • B.A., Art History, San Francisco State University

  • A.A., Multidisciplinary Studies, DeAnza College

AWARDS & HONORS

  • 2025 - Mental Well-being Reporting Fellowship, Pulitzer Center

  • 2019 - Arts Writers Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation

PUBLICATIONS & OTHER WORK

  • 2024 – Civil Eats – Southern Black Farmers Grow Rice and Reconciliation

  • 2024 – Civil Eats – A Debut Southern Cookbook Challenges Simplified Notions of Black Cuisine

  • 2024 - Civil Eats - For Farmers and Ranchers Grappling With Mental Health, This Fourth-Generation Farmer Offers Help That Works

  • 2024 - Civil Eats - Can Cooking in Community Slow Dementia and Diabetes?

  • 2023 – Oakland North - Oakland adopts environmental plan that misses many resident concerns

  • 2022 - Leuven University Press - "Black Birth Matters" in Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation, edited by Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago

MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS

  • Journalists Association for Mental Health, Co-chair, U.C. Berkeley Chapter

  • National Association of Black Journalists, Board Member, U.C. Berkeley Chapter

  • National Association of Gay & Lesbian Journalists, Member

REPORTING INTERESTS

Arts and Culture, Health & Environment, History, Human Rights, LGBTQIA+, Racial Justice