James Edwards hosted and reported the investigative podcast series Un(re)solved. Produced by FRONTLINE PBS, the series examines the U.S. government’s efforts to investigate dozens of cold case murders that date back to the civil rights era. Un(re)solved made its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Festival as a Narrative Nonfiction Official Selection in the Festival’s Competition Program.
Ed Sealover, a senior reporter at the Denver Business Journal, was honored recently as Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He won the award for his coverage of the devastating effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the state’s business community, which included more than 500 stories written in 2020 on the suffering of businesses, the public policies that impacted them and the way that many were changing in order to survive. SPJ Colorado described his “commanding deep sourcing, fast turnaround and a near-encyclopedic knowledge of Colorado business” in the news release announcing the honor. He also received three first-place awards in the four-state competition in the categories of business news, business enterprise reporting and political news. Sealover lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado with his wife, Denise Jobin Sealover (BSJ ’95) and their children, Lincoln and Jane.
Eve Chen is thrilled to join USA TODAY as a Consumer Travel reporter. She previously worked closely with USA TODAY, covering the nation’s top stories as a senior producer with Gannett’s Video Production Center. Eve serves as co-chair of Gannett’s Asian American employee resource group, Asian American Forward. She is honored to be part of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program 2021 cohort.
With more than eight years brand marketing experience in FMCG industry in Taiwan, developing marketing strategy and driving business growth for several well-known brands, Debbie is joining Nike Shanghai as Senior Brand Manager. After graduating from IMC program, Debbie still keeps reminding herself to use consumer centric, and data driven focus to communicate with consumers, to keep building successful brands that resonate with consumers.
Andrew Theen is the new podcasts editor at The Oregonian/OregonLive. Theen will oversee podcast creation and production at the largest news organization in Oregon. Theen started his career in public radio, where he was a reporter and producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting. After completing his MSJ, Theen begin working as a staff reporter at The Oregonian. He’s covered Portland City Hall, environmental issues, transportation and higher education at the paper since joining the staff in 2012. Theen created and launched The Oregonian’s first podcast — Beat Check with The Oregonian – in 2019 and will now oversee all podcasts at the paper. He lives in Portland with his wife and two daughters.
Will Mendelson has joined Micron Technology in its Global Communications & Marketing Team, as Operations Tools & Training Lead, after spending almost a decade as a journalist at Us Weekly, Esquire and the Chicago Tribune.
In May 2021, Natalie Tomko started a new position at a fintech startup in Pittsburgh called numo. She previously worked for 4 years as digital marketing manager at eG Innovations, an IT diagnosis technology.
Courtney J. Wessel was promoted to Engagement Strategy Supervisor at AbelsonTaylor, an award-winning health and wellness advertising agency. Wessel joined AbelsonTaylor 18 months ago as a Senior Engagement Strategist and recently helped launch G1 Therapeutics’ COSELA™ (trilaciclib), the first and only FDA-approved therapy indicated to decrease the incidence of chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression in adult patients living with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC)
VICE News reporters Isobel Yeung, Zach Caldwell, Mahmud Mousa, Jackie Jesko and Tarek Turkey have been awarded the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for their coverage of the human rights crisis in Idlib, Syria’s last rebel-controlled province, during the
country’s ongoing civil war. Their report, “Battle for Idlib,” a segment from season one of VICE on Showtime, paints a tragic picture of the recent increase in bombings by Syria’s government and its Russian allies.
“There was some truly impressive work submitted for this year’s Foley Award. However, the reporting that Isobel Yeung and her colleagues at Vice News did in Syria rose above the rest,” says judge Brett Pulley (MSJ87), Bloomberg’s Atlanta bureau chief and Medill Board of Advisers member. “Their story of the battle for the last rebel stronghold in Syria is compelling, gruesome and heartbreaking. With Yeung leading the way, they put themselves on the ground in the most dangerous area of the country, amidst chaos, rebel militias and artillery fire, and courageously delivered a report that detailed the government’s bombing of the region and the humanitarian crisis it has created.”
Through a combination of interviews, flight data and cockpit recordings, Yeung and her team proved that government-issued airstrikes were deliberately targeting unarmed civilians, and were doing so with high-tech backing from Russian air support.
“Isobel Yeung and her team braved fighter jet and drone attacks in Idlib to tell the devastating story of Syrian government warfare against its own people, including children,” says judge and Medill faculty member Ceci Rodgers. “Their story was as impactful as it was immersive.”
The bravery demonstrated by Yeung and her colleagues embodies the spirit of Medill alumnus James Foley, the award’s namesake, who was captured while reporting in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS extremists in 2014.
“Her interviews with children reminded me strongly of James Foley’s reporting from Libya and Syria,” says judge and Medill Professor Ellen Shearer, Washington bureau chief and co-director of the Medill National Security Journalism initiative. “He felt it was so important for journalists to show the cost of war on the civilian population. Isobel reminded me of Jim in her passion for the truth and compassion for the people.”
Since the segment’s publication, Yeung’s team has been contacted by the United Nations and human rights organizations to provide first-hand testimonies of the war crimes they witnessed so legal action can be taken in international courts.
Honorable Mention
This year’s honorable mention also won high praise from the judges. In “When can we really rest?” published on April 2, 2020 in The California Sunday Magazine, Nadja Drost crossed the Darien Gap with fellow reporters Bruno Federico and Carlos Villalón, who contributed photos to the story.
Named for the 66-mile break in the Pan-American Highway, The Darien Gap is roughly 10,000 square miles of dense rainforest on the border between Colombia and Panama. Drost and her colleagues walked 4 to 6 miles a day alongside groups of migrants from Cameroon, Pakistan, Ghana, Haiti, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. The reporting project was supported by the Pulitzer Center, and included a series for the PBS NewsHour by Drost and Federico.
The team put their lives in the hands of smuggler guides in an uninhabited, remote region, facing many of the same risks migrants did, including frequent assault, armed robbery, food shortage, drowning and even murder.
“It was chilling to find out that pretty much every group that was ahead of us or behind us had either been robbed or sexually assaulted,” Drost says. “There was a moment near the end of the trip when I realized this was a really bad situation. People had not eaten for days and days. We have to get out of here by tonight or tomorrow, maximum.”
About the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism
The medal is given for work published during a calendar year to an individual or team of journalists, working for a U.S.-based media outlet, who best displayed moral, physical, ethical, financial or political courage in the pursuit of a story or series of stories.
The selection committee included Bloomberg’s Atlanta Bureau Chief and Medill Board of Advisers member Brett Pulley, Medill Professor Emeritus Donna Leff, Medill Director of Global Journalism Learning Ceci Rodgers, and Medill National Security Journalism Initiative Co-Director Ellen Shearer.
The 2019 award was given to Azam Ahmed, New York Times bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, for his 2019 investigation of gang murder across Latin America. In his series “Kill, or Be Killed: Latin America’s Homicide Crisis,” Ahmed chronicled the rampant and unchecked gang violence in the region.
Sisi Wei now serves as Co-Executive Director of OpenNews, a nonprofit that helps people strengthen relationships across organizations and build a more equitable future for journalism.
Sisi joined OpenNews in 2020 as Director of Programs, and previously was Assistant Managing Editor at ProPublica.