Knight-Wallace Fellowships Archives - Wallace House Center for Journalists

Investing in Solutions for Our Region

July 1, 2025July 1, 2025

Great Lakes Local News Fellowship - Accept the Challenge

Accept the Challenge to Build Vibrant, Community-Centered Journalism

Journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and essential to an informed citizenry. As local news outlets across the U.S. and in the Great Lakes region have disappeared, communities have lost access to reliable information, weakening civic engagement and trust.

Responding to this urgent need, Wallace House Center for Journalists launched the Great Lakes Local News Fellowship in 2024 with a $1 million challenge grant from the Michigan-based Song Foundation and a $280,000 matching grant from the Illinois-based Joyce Foundation. This challenge is a call to others who believe in the power of local journalism to join us in sustaining and expanding this work. Together, we are collaborating with philanthropic partners across the Great Lakes region to establish a $5 million fund within the next five years — an investment in the future of local news.

“We believe that collective investments are urgently needed to preserve local journalism and ensure residents of the Great Lakes region have access to credible information to help guide their engagement and advocacy.”
–Khalilah Burt Gaston, Executive Director of the Song Foundation

About the Great Lakes Local News Fellowship

This specialized Knight-Wallace Fellowship supports journalists working to launch or rebuild local news in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Through access to the professional schools, faculty and resources at the University of Michigan, Great Lakes Local News Fellows pursue ambitious journalism projects and receive hands-on guidance in entrepreneurship, business, law and organizational development. Fellows also receive a $90,000 stipend, health insurance for the academic year and post-fellowship support to help bring their entrepreneurial journalism projects to life.

Meet the 2025-2026 Inaugural Fellows

Elizabeth Jensen
Press Forward Northern Michigan
Jensen consults on journalism ethics and standards and serves as the co-chair of Press Forward Northern Michigan, an organization dedicated to supporting local journalism in the region. She will focus on developing strategies to bring together new and existing newsrooms across 23 mostly rural counties in Northern Michigan.

Irene Romulo
Cicero Independiente
Romulo is co-founder of Cicero Independiente, a bilingual newsroom that reports with and for the majority immigrant community of Cicero, Illinois. Her fellowship work will explore how to grow and sustain community-owned, community-powered newsrooms.

Help Build the Future of Local News

If you believe in the necessity of local journalism to strengthen communities, we invite you to join the Song Foundation, The Joyce Foundation and Wallace House in rising to this challenge. Together, we can build a future where vibrant, community-centered journalism thrives across the Great Lakes.

Contact Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson to learn how your partnership can help sustain and grow this vital work.

About The Song Foundation

The Song Foundation, inspired by Southeast Michigan’s spirit of progress and creative risk-taking, supports ideas, people, and organizations that further its shared vision of an equitable, thriving community. It embraces disruptors and amplifies the signal of people already working, every day to create opportunities for neighbors in need and to foster economic, social, environmental, and cultural wealth—community wealth—for a more free, prosperous, and joyful future.
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About The Joyce Foundation

The Joyce Foundation is a private, nonpartisan philanthropy that invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.
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About Wallace House Center for Journalists

Wallace Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan is committed to fostering excellence in journalism. We are home to programs that recognize, sustain and elevate the careers of journalists to address the challenges of journalism today, foster civic engagement and uphold the role of a free press in a democratic society. We believe in the fundamental mission of journalism to document, interpret, analyze and investigate the forces shaping society.

A Voice of Resistance and Renewal on World Press Freedom Day

May 2, 2025May 2, 2025

My Fight for Freedom of Speech Began With, “You Are Listening to Radio Liberty!”

I was born in Kyrgyzstan, a small former Soviet Union country, where only the giant Tien Shan mountains separated us from China. I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather was a dissident who had escaped Chinese communism only to live under Soviet totalitarianism. In his world, information was power, and the radio was a lifeline.

Besides the state-issued radio in our small home, my grandfather kept a smaller one powered by batteries. No matter the season – whether through driving rain, annoying summer heat, or deep snow – he would slip the little radio into his pocket, mount his donkey, and ride into the mountains.

Chynybaeva’s grandparents in the backyard of her home in At-Bashy, Kyrgyzstan, 2004

When I was nine, I begged him to take me along, and eventually, one early summer morning, he agreed. We saddled a donkey, my grandfather leading in front, me clinging to the saddle behind him. As we climbed higher into the hills, he kept glancing anxiously around, urging the donkey to move faster.

When we reached a remote ridge, invisible from the valley and village below, he turned to me. “Promise me,” he said, “you won’t tell anyone — not even your grandmother — what we are about to do.” I nodded solemnly.

He switched on the radio and tuned it carefully, searching for the right frequency. Through the static, a voice broke out. “Good morning, Kyrgyzstan! You are listening to Radio Azattyk!” The word Azattyk in Kyrgyz means liberty. Back then, listening to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was a crime, as it is today in Russia and many other former Soviet countries.

At that moment, I understood that beyond the brutally curated broadcasts of Soviet media, there existed another voice. A voice that spoke of a world outside of official propaganda — which was always in Russian. A voice that reported not only about Soviet parades but about the lives of ordinary people – lives like ours in my language, in Kyrgyz.

On that mountain, with a crackling radio in my grandfather’s hands, my journey for freedom of speech and my fight for freedom began.

Chynybaeva and her son, At-Bashy, Kyrgyzstan, 2010

More than 20 years later, I had fulfilled my childhood dream of becoming a journalist. Now it was my voice greeting eager listeners in my country: “Good morning, Kyrgyzstan! You are listening to Radio Azattyk.”

My grandfather passed away five years before I joined Radio Azattyk, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Kyrgyz Service in Bishkek.

Through Radio Azattyk, ordinary people, many for the first time, heard that their own Kyrgyz language was not something to be hidden or silenced by Moscow’s demand but something to be valued, that democracy was not a distant dream, but a right they deserved; and that corruption, injustice, and inequality could be discussed openly, without fear. Azattyk offered investigative journalism — when state media was scared or censored — covering corruption, government failures and human rights abuses, and amplifying the voices of the oppressed.

Facing Repression – Finding New Hope

Except for the Baltic states, almost all former Soviet Union countries are now governed by authoritarian regimes, where building a free press at the grassroots level is often an impossible task.

In the past five years, the crackdown on independent media in most of the countries of the Former Soviet Union has become brutal. A recent example from Kyrgyzstan: in January of last year, 11 independent investigative journalists were detained in a single morning, with some later sentenced to five or six years in prison.

Living in an environment hostile to free speech, every journalist in Kyrgyzstan knows that seeking to report the truth inevitably invites intimidation – both online and offline. Physical threats and police interrogations have become a routine part of life for reporters.

Chynybaeva reporting for RFE/RL at the UN Climate Change Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, 2021

In this climate of constant threats, burnout, and isolation I often felt crushed by fear and doubt. Like many of my colleagues, I was losing hope — feeling that the fight for free speech had become like battling windmills.

That’s when Wallace House stepped in.

The Knight-Wallace Fellowship didn’t just offer me an academic opportunity. It gave me something even more precious: a community. A place where I could finally share what I had carried, where I could reflect, and begin to heal – personally and professionally.

Wallace House welcomed me into a global family of journalists who believe, as I do, in the fearless pursuit of truth. It allowed me to take classes at the University of Michigan and to be in conversation with journalism leaders and innovators – the former editor of The Washington Post, reporters with the digital investigations team at The New York Times – people who I could never even dream of meeting from my remote post in Kyrgyzstan.

Through the Knight-Wallace Fellowship, I found new strength. New purpose. New allies. New friends. And I gained support to think strategically about how to continue my work.

The world is now witnessing the slow erosion of independent journalism – from the steppes of Central Asia to small-town America. Under the weight of misinformation, digital surveillance, financial hardship, and rising autocratic pressure, dozens of small-scale newsrooms have been forced to halt their operations.

In this environment, organizations like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Wallace House can offer a vital lifeline. Without them, thousands of voices will fall silent. Hundreds of my colleagues – brave journalists seeking justice and truth – will be left without support and face life-threatening danger.

And when our voices are gone, the people who suffer most are not the journalists: it’s the communities we serve.

On this World Press Freedom Day, I hope people will remember millions of grandfathers like mine, who are still secretly climbing a mountain top in search of truth, despite their fear of an authoritarian regime. Today’s fight for free speech is for a world where truth doesn’t require a donkey ride into the mountains.

Baktygul Chynybaeva is a 2024-2025 Knight Wallace Fellow and former correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty covering issues in Central Asia and across her home country of Kyrgyzstan. During her fellowship year, she focused on developing training programs for journalists in exile from Central Asia and Russia.

Join us in supporting journalists on World Press Freedom Day and beyond. Donate now.

To learn more about how to make a major gift in support of these efforts, please contact Jennifer Halseth, Financial Administrator, at [email protected].

The Song Foundation and The Joyce Foundation Commit $1.28 Million to Wallace House Center for Journalists to Launch the Great Lakes Local News Initiative

September 10, 2024July 9, 2025

Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan is pleased to announce an innovation-driven $1.28 million gift from the Song Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. This funding will launch the Great Lakes Local News Initiative and bolster the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, providing targeted support for journalists dedicated to revitalizing local news across the midwestern Great Lakes states.

The initiative will grant specialized fellowships within the Knight-Wallace program, offering entrepreneurship training from experts at Wallace House, the University of Michigan, and national and regional journalism partners. These fellowships will empower journalists to build or grow new journalism outlets or lead innovative initiatives within existing newsrooms, ensuring local communities have access to reliable, sustainable and equitable information.

The Great Lakes Local News Initiative is an effort to address the alarming decline of local journalism and the resulting breakdown in social cohesion necessary for informed, functioning communities. Nearly one-third of U.S. newspapers have closed since 2005, leaving behind news deserts and communities vulnerable to disinformation and unaccountable leadership, threatening the fabric of democracy. By building on the 50-year history of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, this initiative will support journalists committed to creating or rebuilding strong, inclusive local news outlets essential to fostering community engagement, action and change. The effort aligns with numerous local news initiatives across the country.

“At a time when the strength of our democracy is under intense pressure, these generous gifts shine a bright light on the vital connection between journalism and an informed, civically engaged society,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House. “Journalists in our region have the ideas, energy and dedication to design new strategies for reaching their local communities. Our ability to add directed training, tools and support networks will propel their efforts and foster a durable news ecosystem. We are deeply grateful to the Song Foundation and the Joyce Foundation for providing this transformative catalyst.”

The Michigan-based Song Foundation has pledged a $1 million challenge grant designed to inspire additional support from foundations and individual donors across the Great Lakes states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. This gift will seed an endowment and build long-term sustainability over the next five years.

“We believe that collective investments are urgently needed to preserve local journalism and ensure residents of the Great Lakes region have access to credible information to help guide their engagement and advocacy at all levels of government,” said Khalilah Burt Gaston, executive director of the Song Foundation. “The Foundation’s commitment to building this ongoing endowment to support the Great Lakes Local News Initiative is our call for individuals and organizations to join us in supporting journalists with a vision and passion to chart new paths in their field.”

The Joyce Foundation, based in Illinois, has embraced this challenge with a $280,000 grant, reinforcing their shared commitment to equity and economic mobility in the Great Lakes region.

“It’s so important to give sharp minds the support they need to build the stronger local journalism we all need,” said Hugh Dellios, director of Joyce’s Journalism Program. “The Great Lakes region has been a fountain of innovative ideas for how to strengthen local news. We’re proud to partner with Wallace House and the Song Foundation to promote more successful entrepreneurship, and we hope others will join us in this effort.”

Applications for the Great Lakes Local News Fellowship will open in October to journalists committed to building or growing local news outlets across Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Like the traditional Knight-Wallace Fellowship, applicants must have at least five years of journalism experience and currently work in some aspect of journalism. The application deadline is February 1, 2025. The first recipients will be selected in May 2025 to join the 2025-2026 Knight-Wallace Fellowship cohort.

Meet the 2025-2026 inaugural Great Lakes News Fellows

Elizabeth Jensen of Press Forward Northern Michigan and Irene Romulo of Cicero Independiente.

About The Song Foundation

About The Joyce Foundation

About Wallace House Center for Journalists

A Lifeline for Journalists at Risk

May 3, 2024April 22, 2025

Roberson Alphonse, an investigative reporter from Haiti, survived an assassination attempt in October 2022, fleeing to Miami before finding refuge as a 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellow in Ann Arbor, where he could continue his work.

Stand with Us on World Press Freedom Day

For five decades, Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan has been a steadfast advocate for press freedom, providing vital support for journalists at risk. Today, as we commemorate World Press Freedom Day, we urge you to join us in standing resolute in support of journalists under siege across the globe.

Through the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists, we provide an academic year of support, serving as a life-saving bridge for journalists confronting crises in their home countries. From Kashmir to Mexico, Haiti to Russia, and Afghanistan to Iran, our Fellows’ stories underscore the sacrifices journalists make and the critical need for organizations like Wallace House to safeguard their pursuit of truth.

Roberson Alphonse, an investigative reporter from Haiti, is just one of many journalists targeted for his reporting in recent years and one of many helped by Wallace House. Since 2022, at least six journalists in Haiti have been murdered in retaliation for their work, making it one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists. Alphonse narrowly survived an assassination attempt in October 2022, fleeing to Miami before finding refuge as a 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellow in Ann Arbor. With the financial, structural and emotional support offered through the fellowship, Alphonse has been able to continue his vital work, writing and hosting a radio show while researching methods to safeguard journalists working in hostile environments.

Watch Alphonse discuss his journey in the video above.

Yet, the challenges facing journalists persist. With conflicts raging in Gaza and Ukraine and autocracies tightening their grip around the world, the statistics are sobering: The Committee to Protect Journalists documented 320 journalists imprisoned around the world near the end of 2023, with nearly 20% of them serving sentences of 10 years or more in retaliation for their coverage. Ongoing wars indicate an alarming rate of death, injury and imprisonment of journalists in 2024.

Your support can make a tangible difference in the lives of journalists like Alphonse and countless others who risk everything to inform and empower their communities. Your generosity helps us provide emergency assistance, advocate for press freedom and enable journalists to tell the truth without fear.

Join us in supporting journalists on World Press Freedom Day and beyond. Together, we can make a difference and ensure that voices of truth are not silenced. Donate now.

Thank you for standing with us.

To learn more about how to make a major gift in support of these efforts, please contact Jennifer Halseth, Financial Administrator, at [email protected].

Support Journalists at Risk on World Press Freedom Day

May 3, 2022July 1, 2022

Elena Milashina, a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow, faces death threats for her fierce reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya and Russia. Wallace House is working to bring Milashina to safety. Watch Milashina discuss the demise of a free press under Putin’s regime.

Taking Action to Support Journalists and Uphold Democracy

For more than three decades, Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan has provided support for journalists at risk. This World Press Freedom Day, we remain steadfast in our mission and ask for your support to help journalists under siege around the world.

Every year, through the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists, we provide an academic year of support, serving as a life-saving bridge for journalists who face crises in their home countries. Wallace House has created a safe haven for journalists from a wide range of countries, including Rwanda, Mexico, India, Russia and Afghanistan.

With autocracies on the rise around the world, more journalists are in need of emergency support.

Some appeals come from here in the U.S., as in the case of Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto who came to Ann Arbor from an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. He joined the 2018-2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship class as a Senior Press Freedom Fellow. Gutiérrez is seeking asylum in the United States following death threats in his home country related to his reporting. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000.

Emilio Gutiérrez-Soto, with his son, Oscar, after being released from an ICE detention center. Gutiérrez-Soto joined the 2018-2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship class as a Senior Press Freedom Fellow.

The need for urgent assistance also comes from international reporters like Jawad Sukhanyar, a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow targeted by the Taliban for his work with The New York Times. Escaping chaos and gunfire at the Kabul airport and hiding in the city for several days, Sukhanyar and his family were evacuated out of Afghanistan in August 2021 through an extraordinary effort led by The New York Times. He returned to the university as a journalist-in-residence with the Donia Human Rights Center and the International Institute, a position sponsored by Wallace House. Next fall, Sukhanyar will join the university’s Department of Communications as the Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism. He will teach courses on global threats to press freedom and the media’s role in the rise and fall of democracies.

Elena Milashina is a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow and investigative reporter for “Novaya Gazeta,” Russia’s last remaining independent news outlet before it ceased publication in response to threats of imprisonment from the Putin regime. Facing death threats for her fierce reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya and Russia, Milashina discusses the demise of a free press under Putin’s government in the video above. Now a journalist without an outlet to publish her reporting, she’s currently working on three projects and remains determined to continue championing the truth. Wallace House is committed to helping Milashina work from a place of safety.

Beyond individual support to journalists under siege, our Knight-Wallace Fellowships provide journalists access to resources and world renown authorities to develop expertise or create new ventures addressing press safety.

During his time as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, Laurent Richard created Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit newsroom to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison or murder. Now an award-winning news collaboration, his organization secretly brought together 60 reporters from 18 countries to complete the reporting of slain journalist Regina Martinez and expose a global network of Mexican drug cartels and their political connections worldwide.

Elodie Vialle spent her Knight-Wallace Fellowship designing a training curriculum and consulting with experts to develop solutions to counter online harassment against journalists. Now recognized as an international expert on this subject, she has trained more than 400 journalists worldwide on how they can protect themselves online and is a consultant for PEN America’s Online Abuse Defense Program.

Play a role in protecting the lives of journalists.

Today, your support will help us defend the role of a free and independent press by extending a lifeline to journalists around the world. Donate now.

To learn more about how to make a major gift in support of these efforts, please contact Jayson Rose, senior development officer, at [email protected].

The Published Journalism of the 2021 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows

October 6, 2021November 22, 2021

In-Depth Reporting from our Reimagined Fellowship

Wallace House created the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship in 2020 to address the remote needs of Covid-19. We challenged journalists to report on significant issues in a moment of great difficulty and change. Our expectations were high, and the first class of Reporting Fellows exceeded them. Teaming with organizations across the U.S., the Reporting Fellows’ work ranged from long-form pieces to creating a new beat for a news organization to developing innovative forms of storytelling. Here is some of the work produced and published by our 2021 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows.

Lisa Armstrong, “Lost Opportunity, Lost Lives,” The Marshall Project in partnership with Mother Jones, June 29, 2021

A feature story on Covid-19 and the failure of prisons to prevent sickness and death among older inmate populations. Despite state Governors’ approval of early release for nonviolent offenders to reduce crowds in correctional facilities, Lisa Armstrong found older people – those most vulnerable to Covid-19 and least likely to reoffend – remained incarcerated.

Sindya Bhanoo, “You See So Much in Our Field You Wouldn’t Believe,” Texas Monthy, December 22, 2020
“How the Digital Divide is Failing Texas Students,” Texas Monthly, April 8, 2021
“Report Card,” for Mission Local, January – July 2021

When schools across the nation turned to distance-learning methods, Sindya Bhanoo reported on the large swaths of students left behind. She published a series for Texas Monthly on students without broadband access and bus drivers-turned-relief-workers delivering meals to the hungry in their communities. Her six-month multimedia project for Mission Local layered audio storytelling and illustration to examine the challenges faced by children during the public health crisis.

J. Lester Feder, “They Just Launched a War,” Politico Magazine, May 9, 2021

In the aftermath of the racial justice protests against police brutality, injured protesters filed lawsuits in cities across the country. J. Lester Feder reports on the case against the City of Columbus, the violent video evidence, and the ruling condemning biased policing.

Mya Frazier, “When No Landlord Will Rent to You, Where Do You Go?” The New York Times Magazine, May 2021

Mya Frazer’s deeply reported story sheds light on credit bureaus and the permanent credit underclass in the U.S. Stained by low credit scores and rejected by rental companies, thousands of Americans resort to extended-stay motels as a last – and very expensive – refuge.

Mario Koran, “Milwaukee Was Already Failing Students of Color. Covid Made it Worse,” The Guardian US, January 27, 2021
“Race Against the Clock: The School Fighting to Save the Ojibwe Language Before its Elders Pass Away,” The Guardian US, April 7, 2021

Partnering with The Guardian US, Mario Koran published a series of stories on barriers to learning in Wisconsin’s marginalized schools upended by the pandemic. From a struggling public school in Milwaukee to the state’s only Objiwe immersion school, Koran reported on the long-reaching consequences of in-person school closings and what it means for those communities.

Chris Outcalt, “He Thought What He Was Doing Was Good for People,” The Atlantic, August 13, 2021

For decades, the debate on healthcare in the U.S. has focused on affordability and accessibility with little talk about the millions of unnecessary surgeries performed annually. Chris Outcalt reveals the story behind a cardiologist who carried out thousands of avoidable heart surgeries, a whistle-blower, and why doctors get away with unnecessary procedures.

Nicholas St. Fleur, “Health Experts Want to Prioritize People of Color for a Covid-19 Vaccine“, STAT, November 19, 2020
“‘Just Utter Chaos’: A Twitter Thread Offers a Window Into the Frustrating Search for Covid-19 Shots,” STAT, January 28, 2021
“An Unusual 30th Birthday Gift: Why I Got a Colonoscopy So Young — And Documented Every Step,” STAT, June 22, 2021

Nicholas St. Fleur partnered with STAT News to create a new beat on the intersection of race, medicine, and the life sciences. He published a series of stories on the vaccine rollout and how Covid-19 disproportionately affects minority communities. St. Fleur’s fellowship partnership led to a permanent staff position at STAT News, where he is now is a general assignment reporter and associate editorial director of events.

The Reporting Fellowship Experience

February 1, 2021September 23, 2021

Forging new paths to produce in-depth journalism and finding a community of fellows along the way

Last year in response to a public health crisis, newsroom upheavals, international travel restrictions and uncertainty around on-campus instruction, Wallace House adapted our fellowship model to address the remote needs of Covid-19, awarding eleven Reporting Fellowships for journalists to report on major issues in a moment of great challenge and change.

It is a first for our program, which since the 1970s has been built around bringing journalists from around the world together for a residential experience in Ann Arbor. This year we work weekly with our 47th class of Fellows from their workspaces in Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, New York and Puerto Rico.

They gather with us remotely for seminars and workshops with university faculty and journalism change-makers. In spite of the confines of Zoom calls and virtual webinars, they’ve developed a supportive fellowship community. Beyond the scheduled activities, Fellows gather regularly in small groups or one-on-one, sharing tips, talking story structure and inspiring one another. Even remotely, the connection between our Fellows is palpable.

“The thing that surprised me most about the program is the interaction with other fellows, even in the remote model. It has been encouraging and inspiring.” Mya Frazier, Columbus, Ohio

Each Reporting Fellow is focusing on a project that requires several months to develop. For some, this working fellowship provides a chance to step back from fast turnaround work. For others, it offers a chance to develop something for a new media organization. And some are using the experience to experiment with new styles of storytelling or a new topic that they’ve wanted to explore.

“For me, the opportunity to spend nine months on a project is really unprecedented to be completely honest. It’s very rare to have that amount of time to really delve into one topic as a journalist.” – Alissa Figueroa, Baltimore, Maryland

While most of our fellows are working on long-form projects that will appear later in the year, some work has already been published as a result of the Reporting Fellowship.

With schools across the nation turning to distance-learning methods, Reporting Fellow Sindya Bhanoo reports on the large swaths of students being left behind. Sindya partnered with the non-profit news organization, Mission Local, to produce “Report Card,” her first illustrated audio piece. Using multimedia storytelling and poignant illustrations, the work is a touching look at the challenges faced by children during the continuing public health crisis. She is also developing a series for Texas Monthly. The first piece “You See So Much in Our Field You Wouldn’t Believe” chronicled San Antonio bus-drivers-turned-relief-workers delivering meals to the hungry in their communities.

Sindya Bhanoo rides along with bus driver, Bobby Richardson, as he delivers meals to families in need.

This year Reporting Fellow Ted Genoways is investigating how Covid-19 exposes threats to the nation’s food security and the risks posed to the safety of front-line food industry workers as well as consumers. In addition to developing his long-term project, Ted reported for The Washington Post feature “24 hours in the life of American workers.” From Nebraska, Ted profiled Eric Reeder, president of a food workers union, to tell of the hardships and barriers essential workers experience. With no end to the pandemic insight, these workers are faced with the ultimatum to continue to work in potentially unsafe conditions or risk losing the job.

The Reporting Fellowship has also benefited newsrooms by allowing them to partner with staffers or freelancers to pursue important editorial priorities. STAT News is partnering with Nicholas St. Fleur to create a new beat on the intersection of race, medicine and the life sciences. To date, Nick has published stories on the vaccine rollout and how Covid-19 disproportionately affects minority communities. In his role for STAT, Nick led a discussion with experts in a virtual event addressing how to prevent a black market for the vaccines.

Nicholas St. Fleur joined STAT News to cover the intersection of race and medicine and the life sciences.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship is giving these journalists the flexibility and much-needed support to flourish within their space, produce journalism examining pressing issues, and be a part of the fellowship community that is a cherished hallmark of every Knight-Wallace class. As our Reporting Fellows continue on their fellowship journey we will be sure to share it with you.

We are repeating the remote fellowship for the upcoming academic year. Applications for the 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship are now open. For more information on how to apply, please visit the apply page.

Announcing the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship for 2021-2022

February 1, 2021June 30, 2021

An Academic Year to Produce Ambitious Reporting on our Most Pressing Issues

Each year the Knight-Wallace Fellowships at the University of Michigan summon journalists to think boldly about their craft and enhance their skills to meet the needs of a changing industry. As the U.S. continues to grapple with a global pandemic and continuing economic, social, and political upheaval, ambitious reporting on efforts to move forward is essential.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowships will remain remote for the 2021-22 academic year, to respond to this unique period of transition. Applications are now open and are due on May 3. We held a Q&A Webinars on February 19 and April 1, to discuss the application process for interested applicants and newsroom editors.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship will provide a $70,000 stipend over eight months plus $10,000 to support supplemental costs for reporting projects to be produced during the period of the fellowship. Our Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will participate in professional development and digital seminars with researchers and experts tackling challenges across a range ofields and disciplines. Fellows will have remote access to the world-class resources of the University of Michigan and regular opportunities for engagement with faculty and students.

We’ll select a cohort of ten accomplished journalists with different backgrounds and experiences to pursue in-depth reporting projects that require time and resources. Selected Fellows will not be required to leave their place of work.

We’re looking for proposals that step back from breaking and incremental coverage. Reporting projects may examine any issue or facet of society but should be timely and should involve capturing how the country and communities are grappling with change and moving toward solutions.

If in-person gatherings become possible and we can ensure a safe experience, we will host Fellows for two one-week sessions at Wallace House in Ann Arbor: one in the fall and one in the winter, culminating in an on-site symposium at the end of the academic year to highlight the reporting work produced during the fellowship.

A Focus on In-Depth Reporting

Published or produced work is a requirement of the fellowship. Applicants must submit a detailed reporting proposal related to the seismic challenges we now face. The output should match the proposed project and form of journalism. For instance, a documentary filmmaker might complete one film during the period of the fellowship; a long-form magazine writer might produce one or two published pieces; a community-based or enterprise reporter might produce a project that appears weekly or monthly.

Areas of focus can include but are not limited to science and medicine, the economy, law and justice, business, race and ethnicity, education, inequality, technology, the environment, and entertainment and recreation. Areas of coverage can be local, national or global.

The fellowship is not intended to support daily beat reporting that would be produced regardless of fellowship support. It is also not intended for book writing.

All work produced during the fellowship will be owned by the media organization for which it is produced and will carry an agreed-upon acknowledgment of support by the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists at the University of Michigan.

The program is open to staff, freelance and contract journalists. All applicants must have at least five years of reporting experience and be either a U.S. resident or hold a U.S. passport. Uncertainty around international travel and visa restrictions makes it difficult to sponsor non-U.S. residents at this time.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship for the 2021-22 academic year is a working fellowship featuring

An eight-month program focused on supporting ambitious, in-depth, innovative journalism projects examining our most pressing public challenges including but not limited to social shifts precipitated by the pandemic, the nation’s deep political divisions and persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality
A remote structure that allows reporters to remain where they live
A cohort of ten Fellows selected from a pool of experienced journalists from a variety of beats and expertise
A $70,000 stipend to support reporting and fellowship participation dispersed monthly from September 2021 through April 2022
An additional $10,000 in supplemental support to cover extra costs including health insurance, reporting equipment and travel-related reporting expenses
Weekly remote seminars with University of Michigan faculty and subject matter experts from a wide range of fields
Professional development and supplemental skills workshops
Subject to public health guidance, two one-week Fellowship Cohort sessions held at Wallace House on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor with travel, lodging and hosting expenses covered by the program
A year-end symposium at the University of Michigan highlighting work produced during the fellowship

Application Deadline is May 3

Applications are now open. The deadline to apply is at 11:59 pm ET on Monday, May 3.

The Reporting Fellowship offers will be extended at the end of June.

An Invitation to Learn More

For more information on the fellowship and how to apply, Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson, and Associate Director Robert Yoon held a Q&A webinar at 12:30 pm ET on Friday, February 19. Interested applicants were invited to join and ask questions. Newsroom editors who would like to know more about this opportunity for reporters on their team were also welcome to join. You can view the recording of the webinar on-demand here.

A Q&A webinar for editors was held on April 1 at 12:30 PM ET. You can watch the recording of the webinar here.

View the Q&A Webinar

View the Q&A Webinar for Editors

More About the Reporting Fellowship

Alumni Update

September 21, 2020January 14, 2021

Staying Connected with Knight-Wallace Fellows

A favorite feature of our Wallace House Journal, our Knight-Wallace alumni updates can now be found on our website.

The Knight-Wallace Fellowship extends beyond a year of study and exploration in Ann Arbor. Fellows remain part of the Wallace House family, gathering for reunions, collaborating on post-fellowship projects and being a source of support for each other. As Associate Director of Wallace House, Robert Yoon will reach out to alumni to find more ways to keep connected and engaged with the program and fellow Fellows.

Do you have updates about a new position, award or honor, or special project or books? Alumni can complete this form and we’ll share your news here. Spouses and partners who participated as affiliates during the fellowship, we want to hear from you too.

NEW JOBS AND POSITIONS

AWARDS AND HONORS

BOOKS

New Jobs and Positions

Ana Avila ’20

Appointed the Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan. She is teaching courses on minority and gender misrepresentation in journalism and covering justice struggles this semester.
@anaavilamexico

Niala Boodhoo ‘20

Named host of Axios Today, a new podcast from Axios. Each weekday morning, Boodhoo and her team cover topics ranging from the White House, Congress, the economy and insights to trends shaping the world.
@NialaBoodhoo

Janet H. Cho ‘20

Received an AARP AAJA Coronavirus Response Grant. Cho plans to write about how immigrant-owned small businesses navigate the pandemic and profile the Asian American immigrant families behind some favorite Ann Arbor shops, restaurants and small businesses.
@janetcho

Patrick Coolican ’14

Named editor-in-chief of The Minnesota Reformer, an independent start-up news organization and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom. For Coolican the opportunity to execute a new vision of a local news outlet and collaborate with talented young journalists was impossible to pass up. Their mission to do investigations, analysis and storytelling, and write about people whose stories are rarely told is “exhausting and exhilarating,” he said.
@jpcoolican

Hayes Ferguson ’99

Named director of Northwestern Engineering’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and clinical associate professor in the McCormick School of Engineering.

Steve Friess and his son, Nevada Ebbess Friess

Steve Friess ’12

Named News/Features Editor at Hour Detroit magazine and contributing writer for Newsweek.
@SteveFriess

Suzette Hackney with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi *photo credit Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar*

Suzette Hackney ‘13

Became a national columnist for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network, where she will travel the country to “give voice to the voiceless through vivid and raw storytelling.” Her first USA TODAY column appeared on September 15. Previously, she was a columnist and the director of Opinion & Community Engagement for The Indianapolis Star.
@suzyscribe

Amy Haimerl ’13

Joined the advisory board of the Mississippi Free Press, a new non-profit project dedicated to reporting and investigating issues facing the complex and complicated state. The news team is focused on getting to truth and solutions.
@haimerlad

Sonya Green Ayears ‘17

Named executive director of Making Contact, a weekly podcast and radio program on social justice issues and grassroots solutions to inform and inspire audiences to take action. “I feel destined to be here at this moment, in this time,” Green told us. “My values of economic equity, racial and gender justice align with Making Contact.” She also recently earned an M.S. degree in Organizational Leadership from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
@aboutsonya

Amy Maestas ’17

Joined the Solutions Journalism Network as region collaborative manager, where she will oversee collaborations among news and community organizations in parts of the Midwest and the West. The solutions-oriented partnerships aim to strengthen local media ecosystems and use community engagement as a tool to build conversations and trust in communities. Maestas’ new role allows her to build on the research and work she did as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, during which she focused on the future of local media.
@maeamy_co

Maurício Meireles ’20

Became a reporter-at-large at Folha de São Paulo and host of the weekday podcast “Café da Manhã,” a Spotify and Folha de São Paulo project covering current events in Brazil and the world. Rodrigo Vizeu, who participated in the Fellowship as a spouse affiliate in 2017-2018, created the podcast upon returning to Folha de São Paulo from Ann Arbor. The morning show is now Spotify’s most downloaded podcast in Brazil. Previously, Meireles was a literature reporter and columnist at Folha de São Paulo.
@mmeireles

John Shields ’18

Joined The Economist in January 2020 to launch “Checks and Balance,” a weekly podcast on American politics. It is now their best-performing podcast in terms of listener and subscription metrics. Shields joined The Economist after 15 years with the BBC. He devoted his fellowship year in 2018 to developing and pitching what became the BBC’s first daily podcast
@johneshields

Luis Trelles ‘19

Joined Latino USA as a senior editor. In his new position, he develops long-form stories about the issues affecting diverse Latinx communities across the country. He was previously an editor and producer with Radio Ambulante. Last December, Luis organized and led an unforgettable Knight-Wallace Fellowship trip to his beloved Puerto Rico.
@cu_bata

Awards and Honors

Greg Amante ’16 and Mike Kessler ’17

Won a 2020 Sports Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Sports Journalism for their ESPN/Outside The Lines investigation, “The Squad: 44 Years, 41 Allegations.” Amante was producer with Kessler as a reporter on the team. They uncovered a trail of sexual abuse by a former Olympian and current track coach, Conrad Mainwaring. Their story resulted in the arrest of Mainwaring.

The two met when Amante was a Fellow and Kessler came to town for interview weekend. They hit it off. Later they talked casually about working on a project together. Reporting the Mainwaring story and realizing how big it could be, Kessler went straight to Amante with it. “I didn’t expect KWF to serve me in such an overt way, or for the project to happen so soon after my fellowship ended,” said Kesler. “But I guess that’s the point of KWF: Connect disparate but like-minded journalists and see what happens.”

@GregAmante, @mikeskessler

Molly Ball observed the social distance protocol when interviewing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

Molly Ball ‘10

Named Outstanding Print Journalist in this year’sWashingtonian magazine’s Washington Women in Journalism Awards. Ball also released her first book, “Pelosi,” now a New York Times bestseller. See below
@mollyesque

Joanne Gerstner ’13

Received the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from her alma mater Oakland University. The award recognizes professional achievement and leadership. Gerstner is the first female sports journalist to win the award. She will be honored in June 2021.
@joannecgerstner

Craig Gilbert ’10

Won a first place National Headliner Award for excellence in political coverage. As Washington Bureau Chief for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he was recognized for his analysis of the Wisconsin’s divided electorate. The judges noted he “writes with an authority that provides readers with context, not only of their state’s politics but with an important understanding of how their state fits into the national perspective.”
@WisVoter

Delece Smith-Barrow and Josh Krammer met for a walk and socially distanced for a photo op.
*Photo credit Alli Bailey*.

Delece Smith-Barrow ‘17 and Josh Kramer ‘17

Recieved the National Headliner Award for Digital Innovation for their Hechinger Report and CalMatters collaboration “A Game of College,” an interactive planning tool and resource for families to prepare for college. This reporting might not have taken such a creative, visual and interactive form if Delece and Josh had not met as Fellows. Here’s their game, with information to help students chart highschool coursework, extracurriculars and SAT/ACT prep, financial aid and employment in college. Play now and get inspired for your next project.
@DeleceWrites, @jessohackberry

Paul Wilborn ’99

Won the Gold Medal for Fiction in the 2019 Florida Book Awards “Cigar City: Tales From a 1980s Creative Ghetto,” a collection of linked short stories about the young artists, writers, poets, musicians and actors who inhabited Tampa’s Ybor City in the 1980s.
@PaulWilborn1

Books

Molly Ball ’10

Released her first book “Pelosi,” now a New York Times bestseller. The first biography written with the House Speaker’s cooperation, Ball was granted unprecedented access. She first profiled Pelosi in 2018 for a Time cover story, where she is the national political correspondent.
@mollyesque

Miles Harvey *photo credit Azize Harvey*

Miles Harvey ’08

Published “The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch,” the story of James J. Strang, a con man/prophet from the mid-19th century who led hundreds of followers to a small island in northernmost Lake Michigan, where he declared himself King of Earth and Heaven.

A lot of reviewers have noted that James J. Strang had a lot in common with Donald J. Trump, but Harvey choses to let readers connect those dots for themselves. One of the many things Harvey says he loved about working on the book was spending countless hours in 19th-century newspaper databases. Although most papers were unapologetically partisan during the antebellum era, the quality of the prose was often superb. A huge boom in the number of news outlets, combined with stunning technological advances such as the telegraph, caused a communications revolution that some scholars have compared to the Information Age. Like Trump, Strang was brilliant at exploiting this emerging media to create and spread his own version of the truth.
@MilesHa91389803

Donovan Hohn ’13

Published “The Inner Coast,” a collection of ten essays – many of which previously appeared in magazines such as Harper’s and The New York Times Magazine, features physical, historical, and emotional journeys through the American landscape.
@donovanhohn

More books by Knight-Wallace alumni