Rhea R. Borja is a business and technology reporter for Education Week, a national newspaper on education based in metropolitan Washington, D.C. Reporting from Singapore to South Dakota and many points in between, her stories range from the rise of the for-profit education market, to trends such as classroom podcasting and the adoption of the video game, “Dance Dance Revolution,” in school districts to lower childhood obesity rates.
She is also a senior writer for Technology Counts, the newspaper’s annual issue on education technology trends. The National Education Writers Association has awarded her a special citation for her coverage on that subject.
Besides education reporting, Rhea writes freelance articles on the media, running and fitness, technology, and travel. These pieces have appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Newspaper Association of America’s Fusion, among other publications.
Previously, she was a metro reporter and a minority-affairs columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. She was also the main writer for the newspaper’s 2001 magazine, Discover Richmond, in which she wrote about central Virginia’s evolving cultural and racial diversity.
She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and a former board member of AAJA’s Washington, D.C. chapter.
Born in the Philippines, Rhea grew up in Southern California. She was awarded a music scholarship in piano from John Brown University, a small liberal arts college in Arkansas, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in music. She also studied for a master’s degree in English literature at the University of Arkansas, and was a Poynter Institute summer journalism fellow.
When not reporting or writing, she competes in local 10K races, volunteer-coaches novice runners, and recently ran her first marathon. She plans one day to complete a triathlon.