Our Team

About Us

Founded by Sarah Varney in 2024, Fountain Productions creates deeply reported, narrative journalism for television, radio, and podcasts. Supported by generous donors, our nonprofit production company brings together top correspondents, producers, and editors from leading newsrooms. Together, they craft ambitious journalism that blends rigorous reporting with exceptional storytelling.

The People

Sarah Varney

Founder and Executive Producer

Sarah is an award-winning health journalist whose reporting career spans two decades across radio, television, and print. She serves as a veteran special healthcare correspondent for PBS News Hour and a contributing health reporter for NPR, and worked more than a decade as a senior correspondent for KFF Health News. Her feature and magazine stories have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and Politico Magazine. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion rights, Sarah has reported from dozens of states, chronicling the seismic fallout on medical care and documenting what lies ahead for the rights of women and girls. A ’24 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Sarah studied the journalistic framing and ethics of abortion coverage in the United States, focusing on the intersection of religion, sociology, politics, medicine, and gender. Her research projects include a linguistics analysis of abortion discourse in modern American journalism and data mapping of abortion ban impacts.

Rachel Wellford

Senior Producer

Rachel produces, writes, and edits our stories in coordination with the PBS News Hour team. She also produces and edits our "Body & State" podcast. Rachel has spent more than a decade in public media, reporting on politics, civil rights, healthcare, immigration, criminal justice and climate change. Before joining Fountain Productions, she was executive producer for PBS News Weekend, managing a team of journalists covering domestic and international news. For over a decade, Rachel was a producer for the News Hour, working on the program's daily news team, politics unit, and general assignment team. In 2020, she won an Emmy for a series exploring the threat of a global flu pandemic.

Julia Barton

Consulting Editor, “Caged: The Origins of Patriarchy” podcast

Julia has changed the experience for millions of listeners by working with award-winning reporters and writers to shape their writing and reporting for the ear. As executive editor of Pushkin Industries, she developed and edited Malcolm Gladwell’s chart-topping “Revisionist History” podcast, as well as “Against the Rules” with Michael Lewis, and historian Jill Lepore’s “The Last Archive,” among other shows. A 2023-24 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and founder of Radiowright LLC, Julie writes and speaks about broadcasting history and how it applies to media today. 

Devin Pinckard

Cinematographer and video journalist

Devin Pinckard is a cinematographer and video journalist who has filmed documentaries, news, and feature films around the world. He has shot two Emmy Award–winning PBS News Hour projects, Stopping a Killer Pandemic and The End of AIDS, examining global public health crises and their human impact. His work spans domestic and international reporting, long-form documentaries, and character-driven stories.

Grace Carroll

Lead Producer, “Caged: The Origins of Patriarchy” podcast

Grace is a writer and reporter based in Brooklyn. She leads the research, reporting and script writing for Caged. She co-created an award-winning podcast investigating the ethical and legal impacts of the true crime podcasting industry during her senior year at Stanford University, where she received a B.A. in English and communications. She received a 2024-25 Fulbright grant to Taiwan.

Eric O’Connor

Cameraman and Editor

Eric is a Peabody, duPont, and OPC award–winning cameraman and editor whose work in broadcast news and on documentaries has taken him around the world. He has collaborated with producers and directors at PBS News Hour, the BBC, ABC News, and Frontline and has contributed to projects for the United Nations, the Global Fund, and a wide range of production companies.

Nick Reid

Director of Photography

Nick is a Los Angeles–based visual journalist with a documentary-driven approach that emphasizes storytelling and thoughtful composition. He has been working as a photographer since 2005 and as a videographer since 2008, bringing a visual sensibility rooted in both still and motion storytelling. His footage has appeared on PBS, National Geographic, CBS, Discovery, and the Smithsonian Channel.

Rachel Wellford

Senior Producer

Rachel produces, writes, and edits our stories in coordination with the PBS News Hour team. She also produces and edits our "Body & State" podcast. Rachel has spent more than a decade in public media, reporting on politics, civil rights, healthcare, immigration, criminal justice and climate change. Before joining Fountain Productions, she was executive producer for PBS News Weekend, managing a team of journalists covering domestic and international news. For over a decade, Rachel was a producer for the News Hour, working on the program's daily news team, politics unit, and general assignment team. In 2020, she won an Emmy for a series exploring the threat of a global flu pandemic.

Grace Carroll

Lead Producer, “Caged: The Origins of Patriarchy” podcast

Grace is a writer and reporter based in Brooklyn. She leads the research, reporting and script writing for Caged. She co-created an award-winning podcast investigating the ethical and legal impacts of the true crime podcasting industry during her senior year at Stanford University, where she received a B.A. in English and communications. She received a 2024-25 Fulbright grant to Taiwan.

Julia Barton

Consulting Editor, “Caged: The Origins of Patriarchy” podcast

Julia has changed the experience for millions of listeners by working with award-winning reporters and writers to shape their writing and reporting for the ear. As executive editor of Pushkin Industries, she developed and edited Malcolm Gladwell’s chart-topping “Revisionist History” podcast, as well as “Against the Rules” with Michael Lewis, and historian Jill Lepore’s “The Last Archive,” among other shows. A 2023-24 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and founder of Radiowright LLC, Julie writes and speaks about broadcasting history and how it applies to media today. 

Eric O’Connor

Cameraman and Editor

Eric is a Peabody, duPont, and OPC award–winning cameraman and editor whose work in broadcast news and on documentaries has taken him around the world. He has collaborated with producers and directors at PBS News Hour, the BBC, ABC News, and Frontline and has contributed to projects for the United Nations, the Global Fund, and a wide range of production companies.

Devin Pinckard

Cinematographer and video journalist

Devin Pinckard is a cinematographer and video journalist who has filmed documentaries, news, and feature films around the world. He has shot two Emmy Award–winning PBS News Hour projects, Stopping a Killer Pandemic and The End of AIDS, examining global public health crises and their human impact. His work spans domestic and international reporting, long-form documentaries, and character-driven stories.

Nick Reid

Director of Photography

Nick is a Los Angeles–based visual journalist with a documentary-driven approach that emphasizes storytelling and thoughtful composition. He has been working as a photographer since 2005 and as a videographer since 2008, bringing a visual sensibility rooted in both still and motion storytelling. His footage has appeared on PBS, National Geographic, CBS, Discovery, and the Smithsonian Channel.