Naomi Taxay

Naomi is an incoming fourth-year journalism and political science student at Northwestern University, where she reports for The Daily Northwestern and the school’s nationally distributed alumni publication, Northwestern Magazine. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Naomi is pursuing a career in political reporting and is currently interning at The Sacramento Bee.

‘My prison cell became my university’: Benard McKinley’s journey to civil rights law

April 3, 2024 | The Daily Northwestern

In 2004, a judge told then 19-year-old Benard McKinley he would spend his next 97 birthdays behind bars. Last month, however, McKinley turned 39 as a free man and opened a hard-won birthday gift: an acceptance letter from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law.

2024 Chicago Journalists Association Sarah Brown Boyden Student Journalism Award, First Place | 2024 Society of Professional Journalists Region 5 Personality Profile Mark of Excellence, Finalist | 2024 Associated Collegiate Press Story of the Year, Finalist | Picked up by Good Morning America, NPR, The Guardian, People, The Washington Post

Democrat Jay Jones wins attorney general’s race

November 4, 2025 | The Washington Post