Wallace House Welcomes Three Acclaimed Journalists as Livingston Awards Judges

Evan Osnos, Stephen Henderson and Jodi Cohen Join the Livingston Awards Judges

Wallace House Center for Journalists welcomes three acclaimed journalists as judges for the Livingston Awards. They join our esteemed regional and national judges tasked with identifying the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under the age of 35.

Joining our national judges are Evan Osnos, staff writer for The New Yorker and Stephen Henderson, founder and executive advisor to BridgeDetroit and host of “American Black Journal” on Detroit Public Television. Henderson served as a regional judge for the Livingston Awards since 2015. The national judges read all final entries and meet to select the Livingston winners in local, national and international reporting, as well as the Richard M. Clurman Award, which honors a senior journalist for on-the-job mentoring.

The national judges includes Raney Aronson-Rath, editor in chief, “Frontline,” PBS; Sally Buzbee, news editor for the United States and Canada, Reuters; Sewell Chan, senior fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy; Matt Murray, executive editor, The Washington Post; Lydia Polgreen, opinion columnist, The New York Times; Bret Stephens, opinion columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher podcast host, Vox Media.

Joining our regional judges is Jodi Cohen, investigative reporter and senior editor at ProPublica. The regional judges, selected for their knowledge of journalism in specific regions around the country, read all qualifying entries and select the finalists in local, national, and international reporting categories. She will serve as regional judge for the Great Lakes states, the position previously held by Henderson.

This regional judging group includes Molly Ball, political reporter and author; Meghna Chakrabarti, host and editor, “On Point,” WBUR; Stella M. Chávez, independent journalist; Adam Ganucheau, executive editor, Deep South Today; David Greene, co-founder, Fearless Media; and Amna Nawaz, co-anchor, “PBS NewsHour.”

Osnos, a writer at The New Yorker since 2008, is co-host of The New Yorker’s Political Scene podcast. He is also a senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of four books, including the “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China,” which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich,” was a New York Times bestseller in 2025. He previously worked as the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he won the Livingston Award in 2006 and was on teams that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and in 2008.

Henderson, who founded BridgeDetroit, a nonprofit news and engagement organization, is also a contributor to “One Detroit” on Detroit Public Television. Previously, he was the editorial page editor and a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, where he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2014. Henderson worked as a reporter, editorial writer and editor at The Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, where he covered the U.S. Supreme Court from 2003 to 2007. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a former editorial page editor of The Michigan Daily.

Cohen joined ProPublica in 2017 after 14 years at the Chicago Tribune. Her investigations have led to changes in state laws and policies and contributed to the release of a teenager from detention. Her work has been recognized with many national honors, including the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism, the Education Writers Association Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize, the Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, the ONA Award for Investigative Data Journalism and the Studs Terkel Award, which recognizes journalists whose careers have been driven by service and connection to their communities. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a former managing editor of The Michigan Daily.

Now Accepting Entries

The Livingston Awards are now accepting entries for work published in 2025. The entry deadline is February 1, 2026.

About the Livingston Awards


Livingston Awards honor journalists under the age of 35 for outstanding achievement in local, national and international reporting across all forms of journalism. The awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and mentors, and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. The Livingston Awards are a program of Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Wallace House Presents event series.

Reflections From Our Fellows Trip to the Balkans

Joseph Sywenkyj is an American photographer of Ukrainian descent who has lived and worked in Ukraine for 20 years.

I arrived in Ann Arbor from Ukraine with my family in August 2024 to begin my Knight-Wallace Fellowship. Air raid sirens wailed as our train pulled out of Kyiv. Days later, I was attending a seminar on Michigan politics and wondering, “What am I doing here?”

By spring 2025, when my cohort set off for three countries of the former Yugoslavia — Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia — I had mostly adapted to life without war. I was looking forward to learning how other war-torn European societies had attempted the difficult transition to peace and democracy.

We began our trip in the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, where we were welcomed by our guide, Bosnian photojournalist Ziyah Gafic. We toured a hilltop museum that chronicled the 1991 siege of Dubrovnik and visited photographer Wade Goddard, who ran a gallery dedicated to war photography. I had studied images of the Balkan wars as a young photographer, but to view them well into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was something entirely new. My wife wept as I fought tears and tried to comfort her. It was like looking in a mirror.

Politicians, journalists, activists and religious leaders in Sarajevo helped us understand how selective memory, language and old animosities are harnessed to spark violence and war. Many guest speakers had warnings to share. Aida Čerkez, who was the Sarajevo bureau chief for the Associated Press during
the war, recounted the mass denial before the Serbs began their 1992 attack. She cautioned: “Try to resist the denial, so you can recognize it in time to react. … You cannot save the world. But what you can do, privately and professionally, is position yourself toward the problem.”

The most haunting part of our trip was visiting Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces murdered more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, most of them men and boys, while United Nations peacekeepers failed to act. We toured the cemetery and memorial center with curator Azir Osmanović, who survived the 1995 genocide at age 13. He told us more Bosnian Serbs deny the genocide today than they did in the 1990s. As a Ukrainian, I took note of the work we must do to commemorate the victims of Russia’s war against us in the years ahead.

We then traveled to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, where I was surprised to feel a sense of hope. Our guide, Serbian photojournalist Marko Drobnjakovic, introduced us to courageous investigative reporters and election observers. And we observed peaceful, student-led protests against corruption,
which had spread throughout the country. We were witnessing history in action.

I remain inspired by the people we met, working tirelessly to heal wounds of war and develop more open, accountable and democratic societies.

Swift Action for the Hardest Hit

Rachel Rohr is vice president of program development at Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.

Like the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, Report for America runs on a tight programmatic cycle. We had selected our 2025-26 corps members and our program year had started when Congress voted to rescind funding for public media in July. About 20% of the local newsrooms Report for America has supported since 2018 are public media stations. We reached out across our network to find out who was hardest hit.

In Alaska, one of our alumni at Alaska Public Media helped direct us to two urgent situations.

KRBD, a station in the southeast city of Ketchikan, was about to hire reporter Hunter Morrison when 37% of its budget evaporated. The small newsroom typically has a news director and one reporter covering a region that includes a busy tourist and fishing community as well as Alaska’s only Native American reservation. Not being able to fill the vacant reporter position would leave 20,000 people without essential local news coverage.

At KOTZ, a one-person newsroom above the Arctic Circle in Kotzebue, the station’s board and leadership told the news director, Desiree Hagen, that they would have to close the radio station within a year. In addition to serving as the news director, Hagen is the only reporter at KOTZ, which receives 41% of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Shuttering the newsroom would cut off the primary local news source and safety information for approximately 10,000 people, most of whom are Alaska Natives.

Most of the stories Hagen covers involve weather alerts, Indigenous cultural programming, and news
on issues such as road closures, subsistence meetings, and essential hunting and fishing information —
updates vital for a community where 60% to 80% of the diet depends on harvested wild food. Shuttering
the newsroom would cut off the primary local news source and safety information for approximately 10,000 people, most of whom are Alaska Natives.

Report for America corps members from across the country.

We accepted Hagen and Morrison as corps members. Instead of our usual grants that cover 50% of reporters’ salaries in the first year, we’ll cover 100% of the reporters’ salaries and benefits in the first year — something we’ve never done before.

We’ll also assist the newsrooms with funding and sustainability strategy. And the reporters will be able to enjoy all the perks of being corps members. That includes mentorship, training, professional memberships and — perhaps best of all for reporters in rural and remote places — a supportive peer network of Report for America corps members and alumni.

As Desiree Hagen, who is deeply committed to continuing her work as news director and reporter, told us, “The funding prevents the voices of rural Alaska and the Arctic from going silent.”

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing Civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

Stepping Up With Focus and Resolve

Lynette Clemetson is the director of Wallace House Center for Journalists.

This is my 10th academic year as director of Wallace House. Over the years, among the key benefits I tout when speaking to journalists about our programs is the university as refuge, a sturdy port in the ever-turbulent storm that is the journalism industry.

As the last academic year came to a close, that didn’t feel like something I could continue to promise with any degree of confidence.

The Trump administration was targeting universities around the country, threatening colossal funding cuts and issuing demands that reached into governance, hiring, admissions and academic freedom. The University of Michigan discontinued its strategic diversity plan. Some departments were scrubbing websites of words and phrases that could draw government retribution. It was unclear whether international students — our own international Fellows included — would be granted entry to the United States.

The threats and absurdities haven’t gone away. The people in our extended Wallace House network — journalists, scientists, scholars, policy and legal experts — are prime targets in the strategic attempt to weaken institutions and consolidate presidential power.

Yet in the face of numerous obstacles, campus this fall still brims with possibility. The harsh realities of a raw and hostile national landscape are being met with expressions of creativity, collaboration, innovation, active listening, welcome and compassion. There is a tangible focus and resolve across departments and faculty, in student activities and community events that offer an ever-present reminder of what makes the University of Michigan special.

As our new Knight-Wallace Fellows move through the intellectual bounty of the fall semester, I am reminded time and again that the qualities that drew me here as a Fellow and that infuse my enthusiasm for outreach as director are no less true now than they have ever been.

But from our perch at Wallace House, each week we’re seeing inspiring evidence across our network of people stepping up boldly with both short-term assistance and long-term resolve.

The excellent work of alumni also reminds me that the dedicated journalists who Wallace House has helped to develop and empower over five decades are well-positioned to meet the moment.

And so this issue of the Wallace House Journal is built around resilience. Not naiveté or blind optimism. But the kind of clear-eyed focus and mission-driven leadership needed to respond to the multiple serious challenges we face with fortitude and vision.

We’ve all witnessed our share of feckless leadership over the past several months, from media executives and university presidents who somehow believed that cowering and capitulating might provide them protection. But from our perch at Wallace House, each week we’re seeing inspiring
evidence across our network of people stepping up boldly with both short-term assistance and long-term resolve.

In these pages, you’ll read stories of our colleagues reaching across organizations to lend financial, editorial and strategic support; about collaborations to build community-level trust and cross-border accountability; and about journalists pairing with scholars to rescue data essential to the work of both. We can all draw strength from these vignettes — and hopefully also ideas.

If after paging through, you feel inspired to reach out to a Knight-Wallace Fellow you haven’t spoken to in a while, or one you have never met, a Livingston Award winner you applauded, a faculty member whose research you’ve been wondering about, a board member you struck up a friendship with, or an engaged
community member you had a great conversation with at one of our events, go ahead and reach out. Check in.

That’s what networks are for. This is an exceptional one — and its members are not in retreat.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing Civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance.“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

Why We Keep Reporting

Seema Mehta is a political reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

I’ve covered politics at the Los Angeles Times for nearly two decades, and I cannot recall a more challenging time to do this work. The nation is deeply polarized. Many voters believe the mainstream media is fake news and won’t talk to us, making it harder to tell stories that reflect the viewpoints of all Americans. It seems impossible to keep up with the firehose of news coming out of the White House, including many policies that disproportionately affect Californians.

The ICE raids that began in Los Angeles in June and the ensuing deployment of the National Guard on the streets of the nation’s second-largest city are prime examples. In the early days, my colleagues and I wrote about the chaos that was violently unfolding amid one of the largest immigrant populations in the U.S., the legalities of the efforts, the administration’s justifications and Democrats’ opposition.

In the midst of an avalanche of breaking news, I heard about a veteran who had self-deported to South Korea.

Sae Joon Park legally immigrated when he was 7 years old and grew up in Los Angeles, becoming part of Southern California’s skateboarding and surfing scene in the 1980s.

After graduating from high school, Park joined the Army and was deployed to Panama in 1989 as the U.S. tried to depose the nation’s de facto leader, General Manuel Noriega. Park was shot twice, honorably discharged and awarded a Purple Heart.

Park said he spiraled into addiction as he sought to self-medicate his PTSD, leading to drug convictions and prison time. He eventually sobered up, moved to Hawaii and raised two children. Every year, Park was required to check in with federal officials and show that he was employed and sober.

People are willing to speak to us during the most harrowing moments of their lives, and we are privileged to be able to share their stories.

During his most recent check-in, Park was about to be detained and deported, but immigration agents placed an ankle monitor on him and gave him three weeks to get his affairs in order and self-deport. He is not allowed to return to the United States for 10 years. He worries he will miss his mother’s passing and his daughter’s wedding.

I spoke with him two days after he left the United States. He remains in South Korea.

Park’s saga is not uplifting. But it is a reminder of the importance of our work and motivation to keep doing it, to show the real-world impacts of decisions being made in the halls of power. People are willing to speak to us during the most harrowing moments of their lives, and we are privileged to be able to share their stories.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

Choosing Civility

Stephen Henderson is founder and executive advisor to BridgeDetroit, and hosts “American Black Journal” on Detroit Public Television. He has served as a judge for the Livingston Awards since 2015.

We’re definitely, assuredly, an unlikely pair.

Nolan Finley is a white conservative from the coal and tobacco fields of Kentucky and, since 1998, the editor of The Detroit News editorial page. I’m an African American liberal from Detroit, the nation’s most industrial big city, and, when we met, I was leading the editorial page at the Detroit Free Press. People delighted in getting us together — on stage, on air, at dinners — just to watch us fight. Politics, culture, race, class — you name the subject and there is likely a conflict between us.

But for more than 18 years, we’ve also indulged an exploration of across-the-divide exchanges that are both rare and instructive. In talking about our lives, work, families, hopes and aspirations, we’ve gotten to know each other. We’ve done the work to understand where our bitterly disparate takes on issues came from. Most importantly, we’ve come to draw value from our disagreements — for what they tell us about each other and our perspectives, and what they tell us about ourselves.

In so many circles and on so many platforms now, Americans talk at each other and about each other — a take-no-prisoners verbal combat designed to obliterate those who see the world differently. Five years ago, a Pew Research survey found that nearly 70% of Americans had no consistent interaction with someone who held opposite political views. Imagine what that number is today.

… we listen — really listen — to each other, and commit to staying in our prolonged dialogue, no matter how painful that might be.

On this landscape, Nolan and I partnered on a project, “The Civility Book,” which was released this spring. In it, we try to explain how, over nearly two decades, we’ve carved a different path. We avoid assumptions about each other. We set reasonable expectations about our encounters, we listen — really listen — to each other, and commit to staying in our prolonged dialogue, no matter how painful that might be.

We still argue, and even fight. After the 2024 election, we got into a row over immigration during a television taping. The argument got loud and had to be broken up by producers, who decided it was too awful to be aired. Nolan and I had a bit of a cooling-off period; I think we probably didn’t talk for the next week or so. But we also don’t let those moments define us or rip us from the work it takes to maintain a consistent dialogue. Soon enough, we were back at our civility work and back to doing other things together as part of our friendship.

In some ways, we aren’t proposing anything more complicated than what any of us were taught in kindergarten. But in America today, it’s elusive and even frowned upon. Civility is often viewed as capitulation or weakness, rather than a key to individual and collective strength.

We can do better.

Nolan and I, despite our differences, are proof.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance.“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

Game over? Not a chance.

The WBUR Festival 2025 at WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts (Photo by Billie Weiss/Bolt Creative Group For WBUR)

Margaret Low is CEO of WBUR in Boston and serves on the Wallace House advisory board.

For those of us in public media, it is most definitely game on. At WBUR, we declared as much in a full-page ad we ran in the Sports section of The Boston Globe earlier this fall — paid for by trade, of course!

Massive cuts to federal funding for public media amount to a loss of at least $1.6 million for our station, this year and in the years ahead.

It’s a real blow and we’re already feeling it. We’ve always gotten half our federal dollars in October. That check didn’t come this year. There will be stations across the country that will shutter and many public media organizations will have to downsize. In some communities, people will be left without a single source of trustworthy news.

But I love the energy and the competitive spirit in that ad. As journalists, we’ll continue to do our work without fear or favor. No matter what is happening to us. It’s our job to understand and reflect the real concerns of people in this country with reporting that is fact-based and impartial. Reporting that goes beneath the surface to cover the most consequential issues with rigor, boundless curiosity and respect.

Boston is my hometown, and having lived in many American cities, I know it’s a very special place. I want us to show the rest of the country that we’re united in our belief that independent journalism makes a difference for our community and for our country.

We serve so many people who trust us to tell the truth and to tell it well. That includes more than 7 million people across the country who listen to our two national shows every week — “Here & Now” and “On Point.” People who hear us on the radio, visit WBUR.org, subscribe to our newsletters and podcasts, and those who come to WBUR’s CitySpace for all the wonderful events we produce.

This is an extraordinary time to be documenting what’s happening in our city and our country. Things are moving so quickly and we get to capture what it means to people in the middle of it — the real impact of the Trump administration’s policies. Like our reporter Martha Bebinger, who profiled a mother in New Hampshire trying to figure out how she’ll get puberty-blocking hormones for her kid. Or the story Simón Ríos reported about a man who was brought to this country as a baby from a Thai refugee camp. His family had escaped the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and now he’s seeking asylum because ICE wants to send him to Cambodia — a place he doesn’t know at all.

With all these critical stories to tell, I honestly believe we’re made for this moment. I have lots of optimism left in the tank, plenty of steel and stamina and a relentless belief in the importance of the work we do. My colleagues and I feel a profound sense of purpose. We’re at a perilous moment for journalism. It’s a moment that demands the very best of us.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

Never Let a Good Challenge Go to Waste

Thomas Zurbuchen served as NASA’s head of science from 2016 to 2022. He is now a professor and director of ETH Zurich | Space in Switzerland. He previously served on the Knight-Wallace advisory board.

It was June of 2022, and I was in a windowless room at the Space Telescope Science Institute near Baltimore with a handful of people who, like me, shared responsibility for running the world’s biggest, newest space telescope. The instrument had started working a few months earlier, after it completed a sequence of deployment maneuvers that seemed miraculous to anyone who understood the complexity of the operations.

The moment seemed to dilate time. A handful of stars spangled the foreground and behind them: near cosmic infinity. Thousands of galaxies studded an inky celestial well, a gathering of shapes and colors contained within a patch of space no bigger than a dust grain on an outstretched hand.

The photons from those galaxies had traveled through the universe at the speed of light for many billions of years before they collided with this new eye in the sky — our ultimate miracle mission, the James Webb Space Telescope.

Three years later, the dreams and aspirations surrounding that mission have been obscured by nightmares and worries. NASA’s science portfolio is facing its steepest cuts in decades. The proposed cuts in science for 2026 are 47% of the current budget with an overall proposed budget reduction from the current $1.5 billion to $487 million in 2026, the largest reduction in NASA history. The cuts would terminate 19 active science missions, including New Horizons, which has been exploring space beyond Pluto for nearly 20 years, plus a host of missions exploring Earth and all new astrophysics missions currently in development.

In response, I joined with the six other living former NASA heads of science in a joint letter to Congress opposing the cuts. It read in part:

“As former associate administrators responsible for managing NASA’s science activities, we know firsthand the incredible talent and capability that our country has built and sustained in the space sciences and engineering over nearly seven decades, and the severe consequences such an indiscriminate cut would impose on the extraordinary U.S. accomplishments and future initiatives.”

Never let a good challenge go to waste.

For this, and every other challenge we face, we must redirect our anxieties. How can we turn our current challenges into long-term strength? I have two observations that may help us move forward.

First, in times of geopolitical stress, astrophysics can look like a luxury. After public lectures, I am often asked: Why fund space science when people struggle to meet basic needs? My answer is simple: History shows that cutting fundamental science means losing out on the technologies and industries that drive growth, security and resilience. Science is about unlocking opportunities for tomorrow and solving problems we don’t even know yet.

Second, big science depends on unsung heroes. Every Webb image rests on decades of effort by instrument builders, engineers, project scientists and managers who solved the hardest problems long before the first data arrived. Yet our system mainly rewards those who publish results, not those who build the tools that make discovery possible. That imbalance must change for the community to be healthy and prosperous.

Astrophysics and journalism may seem far apart, but they share this truth: moments of challenge are also moments of opportunity.

Now is the time to act. We must step out of our academic bubble and engage policymakers, industry and the public with a broader message: not just about wonder, but about the tools and capabilities that keep nations secure and economies strong. And within our own community, we must value not only the visionaries but also the builders. The future depends on both.

This lesson is not unique to science. During my time on the board of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, I saw how journalism too is navigating crises of trust and sustainability. In times of polarization, journalists have been cast as “enemies of the people,” and within the profession, attention often gravitates to big investigations at major outlets, while essential local and community journalism struggles to survive. Like science, journalism must both engage broader communities and confront its own feedback loops that can undervalue crucial, less visible work.

Astrophysics and journalism may seem far apart, but they share this truth: moments of challenge are also moments of opportunity. If we recognize and support not just the headline-makers but also the builders — whether they are telescope engineers or local reporters — we create resilience. And from resilience comes the possibility of renewal and of new opportunities.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

Bending Without Breaking: Resilience in Academia

Celeste Watkins-Hayes is the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and serves on the Wallace House advisory board.

Last spring, as with every spring before it, my academic year culminated in commencement activities. Yet this year felt distinctly different. The familiar feeling of joy and pride was present, but it was accompanied by a palpable anxiety among our graduates, many confronting the uncertainties of a rapidly shifting policy landscape and a volatile labor market. Their questions leading up to graduation — about the role of public service, the diminished value of evidence-based policy solutions, and the seemingly intractable social problems they would face — were immediate and pressing.

In my remarks, echoed by Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin in her keynote address, I emphasized the enduring value of resilience: the ability to bend without breaking, to navigate uncertainty with courage, and to approach the future with deliberate preparation and commitment to public service. The moment reminded me that resilience is essential not only for individuals stepping into their careers but also for the institutions that cultivate and sustain them.

Resilience has long been an animating force among colleges and universities, shaping not only their survival but their ability to thrive in the face of precarity. Many schools have historically navigated scarcity, systemic inequities across institutions and shifting societal expectations with creativity, determination and strategic foresight. Today, the landscape of higher education challenges even the most established and well-resourced universities. Recent federal lawsuits against Ivy League institutions, alongside sweeping cuts to critical research funding — including programs supporting lifesaving innovations — highlight the precarity of academic enterprises once assumed to be impervious.

Broadly, resilience can be understood in two interrelated ways. The first is toughness: the ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances (Neil, 2000), holding firm in the face of challenge. The second, drawn from material sciences, is elasticity: the capacity to absorb energy when deformed and release it upon unloading, emphasizing adaptability — the ability to bend and pivot when circumstances demand, returning stronger or in a reimagined form (Campbell, 2008).

While these qualities may seem paradoxical — holding steady versus bending — they are mutually reinforcing, together enabling universities to navigate financial uncertainty and shifting political demands.

Resilient institutions pivot strategically, aligning initiatives with mission-critical objectives and focusing energy on what is foundational rather than desirable. Teaching remains a core purpose; providing access to students, particularly those from underserved backgrounds, is one of the most profound ways universities exercise public impact. At the same time, universities are bastions of innovation, anticipating societal needs while stewarding finite resources. Leaders must act as strategic investors and careful fiscal managers, making wise cuts while also making bold investments that seed the future of scholarship, public service and social transformation. This dual role requires discernment, courage and a willingness to embrace uncertainty.

It also demands cultural and moral commitment. When this academic year draws to a close, I anticipate offering similar reflections to our 2026 graduates — reminding them, as I did with our 2025 graduates, of the enduring importance of resilience, courage and purpose. In the meantime, I draw hope and energy from my students and colleagues, just as I have each fall, finding inspiration in their curiosity, dedication and unwavering commitment to the public good. Indeed, it is through this ongoing exchange — between the hopes and ambitions our students carry and the guidance and support of our institutions — that the future of higher education, and of public service, is continually forged.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“

The Future of Our Profession: Student Journalism

Samantha, wearing her Wallace House swag, standing in front of Walter Lippman House, home of the Nieman Foundation. (Photo credit: Peter Canova)

Samantha Henry is editor of Nieman Reports, the flagship publication of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard — where I came to work following my Knight-Wallace Fellowship year — currently occupies multiple rings on the Trump administration’s bullseye: We’re a media organization, host to international journalists on U.S. visas and at the heart of the Ivy League.

Setting aside the very real consequences that President Donald Trump’s actions have had on the university, from a media perspective, it often feels like a battle over who gets to control the narrative. Some outlets echo the administration’s talking points: insisting the campus is rife with antisemitism and an unsafe environment for those who disagree with the liberal worldview. Others label Harvard heroic for pushing back against the administration’s demands and view it as a symbol of strength in the face of relentless assault.

But the “heroic Harvard” narrative does not neatly accommodate the concessions the university has made — and may still make — nor does it account for the way Harvard’s leadership largely stayed silent as the university’s first Black woman president was fed to the congressional wolves.

There is one sector of the media that has largely resisted these oversimplifications, and it gives me hope for the future of our profession: student journalism.

The reality — as we should always try to emphasize in journalism — is much more complex and nuanced than the hero-villain narrative allows.

However, there is one sector of the media that has largely resisted these oversimplifications, and it gives me hope for the future of our profession: student journalism. Whether at The Harvard Crimson or outlets across the country that attend Nieman’s annual student journalism conference, many have been covering developments on their campuses with nuance, bravery in the face of intimidation and an ongoing commitment to platforming a wide range of perspectives.

For example, when an international student at nearby Tufts University was forcibly detained by masked immigration agents — ostensibly for having contributed to an op-ed in the school’s newspaper — The Crimson and other student outlets quickly published editorials in support of their student media colleagues.

“If publishing an op-ed can land a student in a detention center, then the freedoms of the press and speech are not just under threat — they are collapsing,” The Crimson’s editorial read, before urging its own university to take a stand. “In a world where an op-ed is grounds for deportation, democracy dies a silent death. Harvard must ensure it does not go quietly with it.”

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance.“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“