Hey, everyone! My name is Lillie Martin, and I am incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to work with NNS for the school year. 

I am a senior at Marquette University majoring in journalism and minoring in public relations and advertising. Over the past few years, Milwaukee has become my home away from home. I have been able to grow and learn more than I’ve ever imagined. 

I am originally from Chicago and was raised by a family of public servants. I found a passion for taking care of those around me and my community. Milwaukee is now a community near and dear to my heart and I love amplifying the voices in it. 

Previously, I have written for my high school newspaper and the Marquette Wire, the school’s student news site. I love writing, and I’ve had a blast working with my schools to keep our students knowledgeable. 

I’m joining NNS as an O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism intern. I’m supporting the project of O’Brien Fellow PrincessSafiya Byers, an NNS reporter whose project focuses on youth homelessness in Milwaukee. 

Always someone to help

Journalism constantly feeds me new information and perspectives. There is always something to learn and always someone to help. 

Outside of journalism, my days are action packed. I am the social chair of my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, where I plan and host events, volunteer and bring positivity to my chapter. I am also the social chair of the Marquette Club Water Polo team, where I play with passion and serve my team. 

Event planning is a passion of mine and I love putting a smile on people’s faces with the magic of seeing something come together. 

I am heavily involved on campus and enjoy trying new things. I am extremely interested in media literacy, particularly how people learn how to navigate an increasingly difficult media landscape and what resources they have.  

Spreading awareness in the community

I am thrilled to step outside of my comfort zone with my time at NNS. I want to learn more about the communities and neighborhoods around Marquette. Taking the time to highlight them will help spread awareness. 

Community-based journalism offers insights into the community that often get overlooked. I want to become a better listener and a better advocate through my storytelling here at NNS.

I can’t wait for a new lens to see what this year has to bring. If you see me out and about, please say hello! I wish to be a friendly face and a familiar one.

Lillie Martin is an intern for the O’Brien Fellow in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University, She is part of a team led by NNS reporter PrincessSafiya Byers that is looking at the factors that push young people into housing instability and often trap them in cycles that extend into adulthood. Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Close window

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site.

*** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. ***

You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.

• Credit should be given, in this format: “By Ron Smith, Wisconsin Watch”
• Editing material is prohibited, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and in-house style (for example, using “Milwaukee, Wis.” instead of “Milwaukee” or changing “yesterday” to “last week”)
• Other than minor cosmetic and font changes, you may not change the structural appearance or visual format of a story.
• If published online, you must include the links and link to milwaukeenns.org
• If you share the story on social media, please mention @milwaukeenns (Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post.
• Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product.
• Don’t extract, store or resell Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content as a database.
• Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.
• Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.
• Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.
• Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use. 
• If we send you a request to change or remove Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.

For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org. 

Inside the NNS Newsroom: Meet our O’Brien intern Lillie Martin

by Edgar Mendez, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
October 13, 2026

<h1>Inside the NNS Newsroom: Meet our O’Brien intern Lillie Martin</h1> <p class="byline">by Edgar Mendez, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service <br />October 13, 2026</p> <p>Hey, everyone! My name is Lillie Martin, and I am incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to work with NNS for the school year.&nbsp;</p> <p>I am a senior at Marquette University majoring in journalism and minoring in public relations and advertising. Over the past few years, Milwaukee has become my home away from home. I have been able to grow and learn more than I’ve ever imagined.&nbsp;</p> <p>I am originally from Chicago and was raised by a family of public servants. I found a passion for taking care of those around me and my community. Milwaukee is now a community near and dear to my heart and I love amplifying the voices in it.&nbsp;</p> <p>Previously, I have written for my high school newspaper and the Marquette Wire, the school’s student news site. I love writing, and I’ve had a blast working with my schools to keep our students knowledgeable.&nbsp;</p> <p>I’m joining NNS as an O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism intern. I’m supporting the project of O’Brien Fellow PrincessSafiya Byers, an NNS reporter whose project focuses on youth homelessness in Milwaukee.&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Always someone to help</strong></h2> <p>Journalism constantly feeds me new information and perspectives. There is always something to learn and always someone to help.&nbsp;</p> <p>Outside of journalism, my days are action packed. I am the social chair of my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, where I plan and host events, volunteer and bring positivity to my chapter. I am also the social chair of the Marquette Club Water Polo team, where I play with passion and serve my team.&nbsp;</p> <p>Event planning is a passion of mine and I love putting a smile on people’s faces with the magic of seeing something come together.&nbsp;</p> <p>I am heavily involved on campus and enjoy trying new things. I am extremely interested in media literacy, particularly how people learn how to navigate an increasingly difficult media landscape and what resources they have.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Spreading awareness in the community</strong></h2> <p>I am thrilled to step outside of my comfort zone with my time at NNS. I want to learn more about the communities and neighborhoods around Marquette. Taking the time to highlight them will help spread awareness.&nbsp;</p> <p>Community-based journalism offers insights into the community that often get overlooked. I want to become a better listener and a better advocate through my storytelling here at NNS.</p> <p>I can’t wait for a new lens to see what this year has to bring. If you see me out and about, please say hello! I wish to be a friendly face and a familiar one.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <figure class="wp-block-image alignleft size-large"><img src="https://milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Comm-OBrien-3-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-181175" /></figure> <p><em>Lillie Martin is an intern for</em> the <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/obrien-fellowship/"><em>O’Brien Fellow in Public Service Journalism</em></a> <em>at Marquette University, She is part of a team led by NNS reporter PrincessSafiya Byers that is looking at</em> <em>the factors that push young people into housing instability and often trap them in cycles that extend into adulthood.</em> <em>Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.</em></p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <p><em>Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between</em> <a href="https://www.catchlight.io/local"><em>CatchLight Local</em></a> <em>and</em> <a href="https://www.reportforamerica.org/"><em>Report for America</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2026/10/13/inside-the-nns-newsroom-meet-our-obrien-intern-lillie-martin/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org&quot;&gt;Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/milwaukeenns.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-NNS-Favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=181198&amp;amp;ga4=G-HGM4XK3QCM&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://milwaukeenns.org/2026/10/13/inside-the-nns-newsroom-meet-our-obrien-intern-lillie-martin/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/milwaukeenns.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Copy to Clipboard