Shadi Bushra

Shadi Bushra was born in Khartoum and left Sudan in the early 1990s, moving to Cairo and Washington, D.C. before settling in Minnesota. Shadi studied human biology and international relations at Stanford University in California, and was pulled to journalism while researching youth democratization movements in Sudan in 2011-2012 for his honors thesis through Stanford's Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. 

At Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism he studied investigative journalism and digital media, completing a hybrid investigative-photojournalism master's thesis in South Sudan on the massive cost overruns and lack of follow-through when building the country's first paved highway, which cost American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars more than it should have and has since fallen into disrepair.

After a summer internship reporting, shooting photos and producing multimedia at the Miami Herald, Shadi joined the Reuters news agency in London before moving to Cairo as a staff correspondent. He was responsible for covering Egypt's energy and agriculture sectors, as well as general and political news in Egypt and Sudan, where he traveled to cover elections. Shadi also contributed photos to the Reuters wire over the two years in London and Cairo, with several being chosen as "Pictures of the Day".

Building on his personal and professional experience, Shadi is most interested in stories related to political transitions,  extremism and conflict; mental health and criminal justice; immigration and refugee communities; and infrastructure, agriculture and energy.