Category: Medill News

Medill inducts eight alumni into 2023 Hall of Achievement

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 23, 2023
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Eight distinguished alumni – including journalists, marketers and a long-serving faculty member – will join the Hall of Achievement at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. The honor recognizes alumni whose careers have had positive effects on their fields.

“Induction in the Hall of Achievement is the highest honor Medill bestows on our alumni,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “I’m delighted to add the names of these eight amazing individuals to the roster of alums who have distinguished themselves across a variety of domains. They serve as inspiration to our students, faculty and staff for the varied and outstanding contributions they have made to their industries and to society. I could not be more proud to welcome them to Medill’s Hall of Achievement.”

Alumni who will be recognized by Medill on May 18:

Jim Berry (BSJ77)

Jim Berry is an evening news anchor for CBS News Miami. His broadcasting career began at WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a reporter. He became an anchor/reporter before moving to WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. There, he anchored and reported news, and hosted a public affairs show before turning his attention to sports. He joined WSVN-TV in Miami as sports director and main sports anchor before being hired by CBS at WBBM-TV in Chicago as a sportscaster. Berry then moved to CBS-owned WFOR-TV in Miami as its main sports anchor and host of Miami Dolphin pregame and postgame shows. Berry is a three-time best of Miami winner with five Emmy Awards. He is a member of the Silver Circle of Excellence in the Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. Over the years, he has been a frequent motivational speaker and supporter of numerous charities that mentor young people.

Casey Bukro (BSJ58, MSJ61)

Casey Bukro pioneered environmental reporting, becoming the nation’s first environment writer for a major newspaper when the Chicago Tribune named him to that post in 1970. Now retired, Bukro will publish a book this year on nuclear energy based on his coverage as a reporter. Bukro also writes an ethics blog about journalism that won the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2015 Sigma Delta Chi award. In 1967, Bukro and fellow Medill alumnus William Jones won the Tribune’s prestigious Edward Scott Beck Award for the groundbreaking “Save Our Lake” series on Great Lakes pollution. Bukro served as the Society of Professional Journalists’ Midwest regional director from 1974 to 1981. He wrote the society’s first code of ethics and served as its national ethics chair. Bukro is a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame.

Craig Greenfield (IMC00)

As Global President, Client Partner at EssenceMediacom’s Media Futures Group, Craig Greenfield works with Google’s consumer and B2B businesses to optimize the return on the company’s performance media investments. His interest in media, creative and technology propelled him to the forefront of the performance-marketing industry. From 2005 to 2020, Greenfield held several leadership positions at DoubleClick Performics. As Performics’ Chief Operating Officer, he orchestrated go-to-market functions and led global client engagements. He also launched the Intent Lab, a research unit that studies consumer purchasing habits in partnership with Medill.

Sarah L. Kaufman (MSJ87)

Sarah L. Kaufman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and journalist who reported on the arts, pop culture, society, science and sports for the Washington Post for more than two decades. She is the author of the award-winning nonfiction book The Art of Grace and a contributing author of Balanchine: Celebrating a Life in Dance. She has taught writing and journalism courses at Harvard Extension School, Princeton, American University and other institutions, and is a longtime faculty member of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Kaufman joined the Washington Post in 1994 after working at the Buffalo News and the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. Her work has earned her many awards, including the Criticism and Culture of Ballet Lifetime Achievement Award from the XXIV International Ballet Festival of Miami, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism in 2010.

David Nelson (BSJ67, MSJ68)

David Nelson is an associate professor emeritus at Medill. Since retiring from the school in 2012 after teaching for 40 years, he has continued to teach writing to adult professionals at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies. While at Medill, he held several positions, including associate dean, director of graduate studies and chair of the promotion and tenure committee. He helped launch Medill’s Teaching Newspaper program, now known as Journalism Residency, and helped build the Chicago Medill Graduate newsroom at Illinois Center. Before turning his career to teaching, Nelson was a reporter and editor at the Miami Herald, and a writer and editor for Pioneer Press, Time and Money magazines. While in Miami, he created the template for Knight Newspapers, Inc.’s local news coverage. He is a founding member of the New York Times College Advisory Board and served as a management training consultant for the Modern Media Institute (now the Poynter Institute), as well as a senior consultant to AR&D.

Bertha González Nieves (IMC97)

CEO and Co-Founder of Tequila Casa Dragones, Bertha González Nieves is an entrepreneur with a career rooted in the luxury consumer goods space. Dedicated to the tequila industry for 25 years, González Nieves is the first certified female Maestra Tequilera by the Academia Mexicana de Catadores de Tequila. Forbes has identified her as “One of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Mexico.” She was also named one of Mexico’s top young businesswomen by Revista Expansión, Mexico’s leading business magazine; “The Most Innovative Women in Food + Drink” by Food & Wine and Fortune; and “The First Lady of Tequila” by the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times calls her “The Spirit Behind High-End Tequila.” In 2022, Revista Quien recognized her as “One of the 50 People Transforming Mexico.” Prior to co-founding Casa Dragones, González Nieves spent more than a decade in leading roles in the tequila industry as well as a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton working closely with leading global consumer goods companies.

Emily Ramshaw (BSJ03)

Emily Ramshaw is the CEO and co-founder of The 19th*, the nation’s first independent nonprofit newsroom at the intersection of gender, politics and policy. The 19th* aims to elevate the voices of women and LGBTQ+ people — particularly those left at the margins of American media — with free-to-consume and free-to-republish daily journalism, newsletters and live events. Ramshaw started her career at The Dallas Morning News, where she broke national stories about sexual abuse inside Texas’ youth lock-ups, reported from inside a West Texas polygamist compound and uncovered “fight clubs” at state institutions for people with disabilities. Prior to The 19th*, Ramshaw was editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, an award-winning local news startup and the largest statehouse news operation in the nation. She is on the board of the Pulitzer Prize where she is serving a nine-year term. In 2020, Ramshaw was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40” list.

Frank Whittaker (BSJ78, MSJ79)

Frank Whittaker retired this year as station manager and vice president of news for NBC5 Chicago after working more than 46 years in three Chicago TV newsrooms. Whittaker’s career began at WBBM before he moved to ABC Chicago in 1993 to become assistant news director and executive producer of the evening newscast. Whittaker later joined NBC 5 where he was promoted to VP of News in 1999 and Station Manager in 2008. He was responsible for leading NBC 5 news on broadcast and digital platforms. NBC 5’s investigative unit became the largest in Chicago under his leadership. Whittaker won a Peabody Award in 2016 for his work on the Laquan McDonald investigation, as well as five Emmy awards for his reporting and producing. He served as a board member and chairman for the Illinois Broadcasters Association and is currently on the board of the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation.

Mike McGrew (IMC97)

2022 inductee Mike McGrew will be honored at the 2023 ceremony.

Mike McGrew assumed the role of executive vice president, chief communications, CSR & diversity officer for Constellation Brands in April 2020. In this role, he leads a team responsible for developing and executing the company’s corporate communications, investor relations, corporate social responsibility, and diversity, equity and inclusion strategies designed to enhance the company’s reputation with key stakeholders and advance the company’s business strategy. Prior to joining Constellation Brands, McGrew held various roles with increasing responsibility at Grainger, then a $9B global provider of industrial supplies and equipment. Prior to joining Grainger, he worked in corporate communications for Alliant Foodservice (one of the nation’s largest, privately held broad-line foodservice distributors) and Morton International (a leading manufacturer of salt and specialty chemical products). McGrew received his bachelor’s degree in organizational studies from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Renita Young (MSJ09)

Renita Young (MSJ09) will serve as the 2023 ceremony emcee.

Renita Young is an award-winning business journalist, Senior Markets Correspondent of TD Ameritrade Network in Chicago and voiceover talent. She’s also host of The Wrap, TD Ameritrade Network’s daily segment summarizing market moves.

Previously, Young was a New York-based correspondent for Bloomberg Radio, TV and Quicktake, the company’s 24-hour streaming platform. Her radio feature on the social media influencer pay gap won two awards: The Association for Women in Communications’ Clarion Award for Radio Feature Story and First Place in the Radio Enterprise Reporting category for the Journalists Association of New York. Young launched #YourMoneyStory, Bloomberg’s first social media personal finance show interviewing experts on the core concepts of wealth building. Additionally, Young hosted the Bloomberg Black Business Beat, a daily radio report covering the intersection of culture and commerce impacting Black audiences. Young has also been a Markets reporter for Bloomberg TV and launched Bloomberg Radio’s daily Crypto report and Quicktake as afternoon anchor.

Prior to Bloomberg, Young worked with Reuters where she covered commodities and launched #GoldWatch, the company’s first social media show uncovering trends in the gold market. She reported for Reuters TV, USA Today and theGrio.com on landmark events happening in Chicago during President Barack Obama’s presidency and key bills at the Illinois State Legislature. During 2012, Young took Jet Magazine to the London Olympics by managing its Twitter feed (#JetOlympics2012) and contributed to BBC TV and Radio. Young launched her business news reporting career at K23-TV in Nairobi, Kenya’s first local 24-hour news network, during Medill’s Global Journalism Program. Throughout her career, Young has also worked with WBBM and WVON radio stations in Chicago, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in Louisiana and AOL.com among other media outlets.

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Associated Press Journalists Awarded the 2022 James Foley Medill Medal for Courage

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 23, 2023
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Winners' head shots with photo of Medill medal.

Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko have been awarded the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for their exclusive coverage in Mariupol, Ukraine. Their five-part story, “Erasing Mariupol,” chronicles the attacks of Russia on innocent Ukrainian civilians during the early stages of the Russian-Ukraine war.

The award is given by the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.

As the only international media remaining in the country, the journalists risked their lives to report harrowing details of children as young as 18-months-old buried in trenches. Chernov’s first-person writing describes the journalists’ narrow escape out of the country after learning Russian forces were hunting them down.

“Alone among Western journalists, the AP team remained in an increasingly terrorized Mariupol. They sent the outside world graphic photos, video and narrative, exposing the horror of the Russian siege,” said Medill Professor Emeritus and co-judge Donna Leff. “Their bravery under fire and their work to help the people of Mariupol, guiding them to shelters and protecting them, define courage in journalism.”

Upon learning of a growing Russian disinformation campaign to discredit the journalists’ work, the trio knew it was imperative to get to safety and share their reporting with the world. Stepanenko wore and smuggled a tampon embedded with a tiny data card through 15 Russian checkpoints. The card contained exclusive footage from a Ukrainian medic, Yuliia Paievska (known as Taira in Ukraine), who was captured by Russia days after entrusting the team with the footage.

Russia freed Taira from custody in June 2022 after the AP published the resulting story and video from Talia’s footage on May 20, 2022. She personally credited the AP for her release. Even after escaping from Mariupol, the team continued to cover the war in Ukraine and were the first to document a mass grave and torture chambers in the city of Izium.

“With shelling going on all around them and a Russian target on their back, the AP trio found a way to sneak dispatches and photographs out of the besieged city of Mariupol, providing a lifeline to the city’s desperate residents,” said co-judge judge Al From, a Medill Board of Advisers member and the Democratic Leadership Council founder. “I cannot think of more heroic journalism under more dangerous conditions.”

“The important reporting by this team of AP journalists at great risk to their own safety gave the world a much better understanding of what war looks like to civilians living through it,” co-judge and Medill Professor Emeritus Ellen Shearer said. “Their work embodies the moral courage that Jim Foley stood for.”

Foley was a Medill alumnus killed by ISIS extremists for his reporting in 2014.

Since the stories’ publication throughout March and October 2022, Chernov, Maloletka and Stepaneko’s coverage has saved thousands of lives and drawn attention to atrocities that would have otherwise gone largely unnoticed.

Honorable Mention

This year’s honorable mention was awarded to Lynzy Billing for her coverage of CIA-backed night raids killing hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan. Her story, “The Night Raids,” which was published by ProPublica, revealed the Zero Units, squadrons of the U.S. trained Afghan special forces soldiers killing civilians based on faulty intelligence.

Over the course of more than three years, Billing conducted more than 350 interviews with current and former Afghan and U.S. government, defense and security officials. Courageously, she was on the ground in rural pockets of Afghanistan few reporters have visited before.

“Billing’s investigative reporting on the CIA-aided night raids in Afghanistan is a remarkable piece of journalism,” From said. “By her dogged persistence and incredible courage, she uncovered a little-known and under-reported story that casts a dark shadow over covert American activities in a tragic war.”

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 pursuit of a story or series of stories. In 2014, the name of the award was changed to honor Medill alumnus James Foley (MSJ08). Foley was captured while reporting in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS extremists in 2014. The award comes with a $5,000 prize.

The selection committee included Democratic Leadership Council founder Al From, Medill Professor Emeritus Donna Leff and Medill Professor Emeritus Ellen Shearer.

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Hollywood legend Mara Brock Akil to address 2023 graduates at Medill convocation

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 23, 2023
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Medill will welcome screenwriter and television producer Mara Brock Akil (BSJ92) to speak with 2023 graduates and families as Medill’s convocation speaker.

“We are honored that Mara is returning to campus to share her insights, experiences and life lessons with the Medill community,” said Dean Charles Whitaker (BSJ80, MSJ81). “Mara’s career has equipped her with an important perspective that I hope will inspire the Class of 2023 as they venture out into the world to begin their careers.”

Brock Akil has written and produced over 400 episodes of television, leaving a tremendous impact on Hollywood. After graduating from Medill, she wrote for the television series South Central and Moesha before becoming supervising producer on The Jamie Foxx Show.

In 2000, she developed the seminal television series Girlfriends, a witty and honest exploration of the multi-faceted nature of Black womanhood, and from there, went on to develop the spin-off series The Game.

Since then, she has produced multiple culture-shifting series that celebrate the complexity and vulnerability of humanity. In 2017, she was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement and in 2019 she was honored with the prestigious Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award by NATPE.

The Hollywood Reporter has named her as one of the top 50 Showrunners five years in a row and as one of the Women in Entertainment Power 100. She was honored by Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood Awards and is the winner of multiple NAACP Image Awards.

In 2020, Brock Akil signed a deal with Netflix to exclusively produce television shows for the streaming platform under her new banner, story27 Productions.

Convocation will take place at 9:30 a.m, Sunday, June 11 in Evanston at the Ryan Fieldhouse with a reception to follow.

Student Speakers

Andrew Rowan (BSJ23)

Andrew Rowan (BSJ23), a journalism major with minors in data science and business institutions, is the 2023 Medill convocation undergraduate student speaker. Andrew was the News Director of the Northwestern News Network and also served as an executive producer, reporter and anchor. He held leadership roles at Northwestern Hillel and in the Medill Undergraduate Student Advisory Council.

Chelsea Zhao (MSJ23)

Chelsea Zhao (MSJ23), a journalism masters student in the health, environment and science specialization, is the 2023 Medill convocation graduate student speaker. Zhao was a Medill Student Ambassador and a member of both the Chicago Journalists Association and Asian American Journalists Association. She was a member of the first cohort of Chicago Reader’s Racial Justice Writer’s Cohort and a freelance contributor to many publications including South Side Weekly, Cicero Independiente and Chicago Health.

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Investigative reporter Kristin Thorne brings her Medill skills to another level: making a true crime series come to life

Post author By Rafaela Jinich
Post date April 24, 2023
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“Can you imagine waking up every day and not knowing where someone you loved is, even if they’re dead?” Thorne asked.

Kristin Thorne, an investigative reporter for WABC-TV Eyewitness News (MSJ05), has made a name for herself in the journalism industry with her in-depth reporting on local and national issues. Kristin’s latest project, a true-crime series called “Missing”, has gained attention and critical acclaim since its debut in December 2021.

Thorne joined the Eyewitness News team in January 2012, after working as a reporter at News 12 Westchester and WHTM-TV ABC 27 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She was promoted to the 7 On Your Side Investigates team in January 2022 after serving 10 years as the station’s Long Island Correspondent.

Thorne was initially inspired to shine a light on the stories of missing people after covering the disappearance of Gabby Petito. As the lead reporter for all of ABC News on this case, Thorne put her investigative skills to work, following the investigation to Florida to cover the search. At one of the press conferences, Joe Petito, Gabby’s father, looked over at the media and said, as Thorne recounted, “You need to do a better job of covering missing people, because more people should be getting the attention as my daughter did.”

“I remember having this lightning bolt moment where I thought, he’s absolutely right,” Thorne said.

Today, Thorne creates, writes, and produces “Missing”, which investigates the disappearances of people from the New York City area. Each episode explores the story of a person who has gone missing.

As a journalist, Thorne has utilized the skills she has learned over the years, such as investigation and research, and describes herself as a detective and journalist.

“I am working as a detective for these families,” she said. “I search, investigate, knock on doors, doing anything a detective would do.”

For each case, Thorne puts together clues that lead to the missing person, and although she hasn’t found anybody yet, she believes in many of these cases, people have been killed, and she assumes that their bodies have been hidden, so she is tracking down murderers.

“That’s what I’m doing, I’m putting together clues that are going to lead me to the person who disposed of this person’s body,” Thorne said.

The alleged murderers from these cases have gotten away with their actions for many years, yet Thorne still has hope.

“Do I expect the person who killed these individuals to come forward? No, I don’t,” she said. “They’ve gotten away with it for this many years. What I’m hoping is that the people around them, after this amount of time, may have a piece of heart left in them that they can come forward and say, ‘I didn’t tell the truth back then.’”

While working on the next episodes of “Missing”, Thorne is still investigating and providing updates on past cases.

“These investigations keep going,” Thorne said. “It’s very challenging, but they’re always in my head.”

Thorne struggled to find the first case that she worked on. She called private investigators throughout New York City and ended up finding a private investigator on Long Island who got her in touch with the family of Leanne Marie Hausberg, a 14-year-old girl who went missing in 1999. She is the first episode of “Missing” and the youngest victim that Thorne has ever worked on. This family took a chance with Thorne without even knowing who she was, but because of this, the Hausberg family led her to the next cases she worked on.

“I always tell people I had no idea how easy it is to disappear,” Thorne said. “Even with cameras and phones, women have disappeared into thin air in New York City. And it’s not crazy, it happens all the time.”

Thorne’s passion for journalism began at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where she graduated magna cum laude. She went on to earn her master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Medill. Thorne now shares her expertise with aspiring journalists as an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, teaching journalism at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.

“Medill formed me, it gave me the foundation that I needed to be in this line of work, and I still go back to concepts and techniques that I learned from my professors at Medill,” Thorne said.

When Thorne first got to Medill, she thought about doing production, but she was not sure if she wanted to be on air. Thorne refers back to former faculty member Anne Johnsos, who told her to try being on air, and if not, she could go back to production. After giving it a try, she decided that was exactly what she wanted to do.

“That’s why I love the series,” Thorne said. “It allows me to do everything, I’m in the series, and I produce it, so it allows me to use all those skills.”

Thorne’s dedication to her work has not gone unnoticed, as “Missing” was recently nominated for Best Local TV News Series by the New York City Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and won a New York Emmy Award in 2022 for best crime program. She has also earned an Emmy Award and numerous Emmy nominations, as well as two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and several Folio awards, which honor the best of Long Island journalism. With her commitment to investigative reporting and compelling storytelling, Thorne has established herself as one of the most respected journalists in the industry today.

You can watch Missing on Hulu, on the ABC7 New York app on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Google TV and at www.ABC7NY.com/missing. Missing’s third season will premiere in May.

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Chief marketing officer at Cadillac chosen as IMC graduation speaker

Post author By Rafaela Jinich
Post date November 17, 2022
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The convocation ceremony will take place on Saturday, December 10.

EVANSTON, ILL. — Melissa Grady Dias (IMC98), global chief marketing officer at Cadillac, will address integrated marketing communications master’s graduates and their families at Medill’s convocation ceremony on Saturday, December 10.

As CMO, Grady Dias leads strategic marketing for the Cadillac brand around the world. Recently, Grady Dias was recognized by Forbes as one of “The 50 Most Influential CMOs in the World.”

“I’m excited to welcome Melissa back to campus to speak to our newest IMC graduates,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “As we enter Medill’s second century, it is important to showcase the heights that Medill alumni can achieve. Melissa’s career represents the unlimited futures open to Medill graduates.”

Prior to joining Cadillac, Grady Dias was senior vice president of performance marketing, digital and e-commerce of Jackson Hewitt, where she was responsible for all demand driving activities including television and jacksonhewitt.com as well as the implementation of a hyper-local digital media program across several thousand locations. Before Jackson Hewitt, Grady Dias led digital acquisition on the global marketing team at MetLife where she led digital strategy for the U.S. market and acquisition programs for several lines of business, resulting in large year-over-year growth, and managed metrics plans and insights across all key global markets. Prior to MetLife, Grady Dias led the global analytics, e-commerce marketing, and CRM teams at Motorola.

“I am so looking forward to coming back to Medill to speak at graduation,” said Grady Dias. “It means so much to look back and remember my time at Medill, and how it shaped and inspired me as I embarked on my career.”

The convocation ceremony will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 10 and will be livestreamed and recorded for later viewing.

In addition to Grady Dias, one student speaker from each program has been selected by the students, faculty and staff to speak at the graduation ceremonies.

IMC Pro Speaker: Noor Jassmi

Noor A. Jassmi (IMC22) completed her undergraduate studies from Medill in Journalism with a certificate in Strategic Communications and a certificate in Middle Eastern Studies from Northwestern’s branch campus in Qatar in 2018. As a double alumna of Medill, Noor continues to use the tools and knowledge gained from her degree to excel in her professional journey at a young age in which she has already gained global experiences in public relations and social media as she initially worked for the world’s best airline and lead on both local and regional media as well as events and inaugurals. Noor currently works in the Marketing Department at Qatar Foundation as she further applies the knowledge she gained from Medill on her job in her hometown Doha-Qatar.

IMC Full-Time Speaker: Aastha Desai

Aastha Desai (IMC22), helped orchestrate and organize multiple events in her time here. Desai has also been a mentor and unofficial ambassador for the program to our next batch of students, making them feel at home here at Medill. Always available to lend a hand, she has a strong passion for start-ups, an eye for detail, and is skilled in storytelling.

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McCormick Foundation announces $7.5M investment in sustainable, fact-based reporting

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date September 29, 2022
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The Robert R. McCormick Foundation today announced investments in Block Club Chicago, Capitol News Illinois, Injustice Watch, and Medill. These investments complement the Foundation’s investment in the Illinois Solutions Partnership, formed with the Better Government Association and announced in 2021.

Together, these commitments to strengthening and scaling impactful reporting in Chicago and Illinois are intended to increase government transparency, enhance accountability of decision-makers to their constituents, and ensure public investments are creating and supporting opportunities for all, especially Chicago’s South and West Side residents.

McCormick Foundation grants to Block Club Chicago and Injustice Watch will support more robust investigative reporting on persistent challenges disinvested communities face and the promising efforts many are leading, in Chicago and elsewhere, to create thriving communities. Springfield-made decisions, from education spending to public safety policy, play a pivotal role in Chicago’s communities, but the attrition in statehouse reporting means these political transactions often go unexamined and remain outside the public eye. The grant to Capitol News Illinois will help a promising three-year-old outlet scale to meet the need for greater scrutiny in Springfield.

To ensure these funds drive long-term change, the grants include support for both editorial and business operations at Block Club Chicago, Capitol News Illinois, and Injustice Watch to help these outlets implement sustainability plans that will see them augment and diversify their revenue streams to support continued editorial growth and impact.

Medill, which is already supporting several local news outlets, will be able to expand its support for local media with the new grant from McCormick and provide a range of business analytics, market research, and expert advice to help outlets sustainably scale and serve the Chicago region’s residents.

“Chicago is fortunate to have one of the most dynamic and innovative networks of nonprofit news organizations in the country,” said Timothy P. Knight, the McCormick Foundation’s President and CEO. “All of these organizations have a history of collaborating closely with others, and several of these organizations currently collaborate with each other on a range of editorial, promotional, and operational initiatives. The simultaneous investment in each of these organizations, together with our investment in the Illinois Solutions Partnership, is intended to promote and strengthen collaboration and recognize the strong, complementary skills each of these organizations brings to Chicago and Illinois media.”

Block Club Chicago will receive $1.6M over three years to build a six-person investigative team and deepen its coverage of Chicago’s South and West Sides. Launched in 2018, the nonprofit newsroom delivers daily nonpartisan coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Its more than a dozen reporters embedded in neighborhoods across the city provide residents continual insights on economic, political, and social developments in their communities. The new investigative team will complement Block Club’s existing daily news team and be positioned to act on tips and pursue longer-lead, high impact stories to improve government transparency and accountability.

“When reporters are embedded in the communities they cover, they’re able to report with context, respect, and deep knowledge instead of parachuting in. Block Club’s reporters have proved time and again that our ground-level approach builds trust with readers, leads to news that is more responsive to the community’s needs and offers a more accurate portrayal of our neighborhoods,” said Stephanie Lulay, Executive Editor and Co-founder of Block Club Chicago. “Thanks to the incredible support of the McCormick Foundation, we’re excited to give Chicago neighborhoods the dedicated investigative coverage they deserve.”

Injustice Watch will receive $1.5M over three years to grow its editorial capacity and expand its audience and revenue building efforts. The outlet is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization that focuses on issues of equity and justice in the courts, especially in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The outlet’s public service journalism is bringing needed awareness and transparency to court proceedings and judicial elections, while engaging community members in the process. The outlet’s three-year strategic growth plan will add investigative reporters and editors, alongside an audience and fundraising team to increase in-person and digital engagement and grow the outlet’s readership and supporter base.

“The McCormick Foundation’s grant to Injustice Watch will enable the organization to amplify its impact,” said Juliet Sorensen, executive director of Injustice Watch. “Our research-driven, human-centered approach to systemic issues will reach more community members and inform and engage them in the process. We are honored by this investment in our future.”

Capitol News Illinois will receive $2M over three years to expand its editorial capacity and add more investigative and Chicago-based reporting. Importantly, the outlet will also hire its first full-time fundraising position and start to build a team to diversify its revenue. It will also add broadcast journalists to their reporting team in 2023 in a partnership with the Illinois Broadcasters Association. Capitol News Illinois (CNI) is a nonprofit news service that covers state government daily for newspapers statewide. Launched in 2019, its stories have been published more than 70,000 times in 460 daily and nondaily newspapers statewide. Since its launch, the news service has added a daily newsletter and a podcast and last year launched a partnership with Illinois Public Radio stations.

“Our news service has had a big impact in its first 3-plus years in the state’s print media because of the initial investments made by the McCormick Foundation and the Illinois Press Foundation,” said Jeff Rogers, director of the IPF, which operates Capitol News Illinois. Rogers is also editor of Capitol News Illinois.

“We are excited about the significant next steps our news service will be able to take with this investment from McCormick. We look forward to greatly expanding our funding base and business operations, extending our audience into TV and radio, and growing our reporting team in the next three years. We’re also looking forward to being a part of a collaborative investigative journalism powerhouse McCormick is fostering with these grants.”

Medill will receive $2.4M over three years to launch the Medill Local News Accelerator, a program to spur innovation and improve long-term sustainability of independent Chicago news organizations. The Accelerator will grow audience engagement; spur revenue growth through digital subscriptions, memberships, sponsorships, and other diversified income streams; and create strategies for long-term self-sustainability of Chicago news organizations. Additionally, Northwestern will launch a new, immersive media leadership training program. Faculty experts from Medill and the Kellogg School of Management, along with media thought leaders outside the university, will provide in-depth training for Chicago media leaders to help give them the tools they need to better manage their news outlets for long-term sustainability.

“We are honored that the McCormick Foundation has chosen to invest in our efforts to help bolster outlets in the Chicago media ecosystem,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “We look forward to partnering with a wide swath of local news organizations to help them chart paths that will lead to their long-term viability and the continued production of robust journalism for our communities.”

About the Robert R. McCormick Foundation

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation envisions a Chicagoland with educated and informed individuals who are engaged in improving their communities. The Foundation invests in organizations working to build thriving communities where all individuals have the resources and opportunities to succeed without regard to income, race, ethnicity, gender, or ZIP code. Established in 1955 upon the death of Col. Robert R. McCormick, longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, the McCormick Foundation has issued grants of approximately $1.9 billion. The Foundation’s Board also oversees Cantigny, Col. McCormick’s 500-acre estate in Wheaton, Illinois, which encompasses a park, formal gardens, a museum dedicated to the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, and a 27-hole public golf facility. Learn more at mccormickfoundation.org, cantigny.org, fdmuseum.org, and cantignygolf.com.

About Block Club

Block Club Chicago is a nonprofit, reader-funded newsroom delivering nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Our newsroom was founded in 2018 by former DNAinfo Chicago editors and reporters after the award-winning site abruptly shuttered. In four years, Block Club has transformed from scrappy startup to one of the most read news organizations in Chicago by being responsive to the city’s neighborhoods, publishing more than a dozen stories daily from every corner of the city and informing Chicagoans through our free newsletter, “It’s All Good” podcast, “On The Block” TV show and COVID-19 hotline. In the last year alone, Block Club has been named Editor & Publisher’s Best News Site, LION’s Publisher of the Year, INN’s Community Champion of the Year and we are proudly home to Chicago’s Journalist of the Year.

About Capitol News Illinois

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit news service operated by the Illinois Press Foundation that has provided free, unbiased daily coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Illinois since 2019. In 2023, it will extend that coverage into broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Illinois Press Foundation and Illinois Broadcasters Association, as well as individual donors.

About Injustice Watch

Injustice Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism organization that focuses on issues of equity and justice in the courts. Our goal is to listen to and center people impacted by institutional injustices and provide them with the perspectives, information, and resources needed to hold powerful people and oppressive systems accountable. We do this through our public-service journalism (such as our Cook County judicial election guides); innovative investigative reporting (such as The Circuit, our ongoing collaborative investigation examining decades of Cook County court data); and intentional audience engagement and community-building. Learn more about our work at www.injusticewatch.org.

About Medill

For more than 100 years, Medill has trained the world’s best storytellers. Whether they are journalists who record the first draft of history or marketers blending data with creativity, Medill students and alumni craft the narratives of the events, people and brands that populate and animate our world. Medill’s hands-on learning programs are matched with innovative research and thought leadership. Learn more at medill.northwestern.edu.

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Medill students attend, learn from annual national journalism conventions

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date September 12, 2022
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By Jenna Wang, BSJ24
Originally published on Aug. 8 in the Daily Northwestern
Photo by Russell Leung (BSJ24) for The Daily Northwestern

When Medill freshman Angela Zhang finished her first year of college, she had all the journalism fundamentals under her belt. Without professional experience, though, she said she didn’t know what pathways to explore.

Spending the summer in Los Angeles provided the convenient opportunity to attend the Asian American Journalists Association’s first in-person national convention in three years from July 27-30, which centered around the theme “Owning Our Narratives.”

“After my first year in Medill, I was in somewhat of a black hole,” Zhang said. “I wrote this down for myself: ‘My goal here isn’t necessarily to force any interactions, but to let my curiosity take me wherever it does.’”

Zhang was one of several Medill students who attended journalism conventions for various professional affinity groups this summer. The conventions provided journalists of all levels with opportunities like workshops, panels, career development and networking in a variety of journalism specializations.

Zhang said one panel that stood out to her was “The Racism Virus: The Next Stage in the Fight Against AAPI Hate.”

She said she learned that despite the standard of objectivity in journalism, Asian American journalists could still retain their humanity and have an opinion — especially when healing from trauma.

“You look around and see journalists of so many different histories, of so many different identities, but at the same time, all connected into this space and into the questions that the panelists were being asked,” Zhang said. “It was a really powerful moment.”

Medill junior Julia Richardson spent the beginning of August attending the joint National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists National Convention and Career Fair in Las Vegas, which was centered around the theme “Changing the Game.”

She said she enjoyed networking and attending workshops about broadcast journalism.

“It was cool to see people that I’ve been watching on TV for so long, even people that I kind of know but (haven’t) really had a chance to talk to, or mutuals through social media,” Richardson said. “The camaraderie was really special.”

As she hopes to pursue broadcast journalism in a local market, she said she appreciated the panelists’ honesty about navigating the field as a woman of color.

Being in a space with people who looked like her and spoke honestly about their career paths allowed her to learn about the realities of what she could face later on, she said.

“Being a person of color, you don’t always go into newsrooms and see a ton of people that look like you,” Richardson said. “It was really cool to look around and see that so many people like me want to do the same things and have the same goals.”

Medill sophomore Brendan Le said having a space where journalists of color could feel comfortable is one reason the NU student chapter of AAJA, Asian American Student Journalists, was created.

Since the chapter’s revitalization in Spring Quarter, Le said he and the executive board promoted AAJA’s convention as an opportunity for students to meet other Asian American journalists in the industry.

“The idea came from a lack of space for Asian American journalists to have a discussion about journalism from their perspective,” Le said. “In classes, we often are so limited in what we can talk about, especially in terms of the identity of journalism and how being Asian American plays into our coverage and events that involve us.”

Richardson said after the convention, she spent time reflecting and decompressing on everything she had learned.

Though this year’s convention felt more low-stakes as a rising senior, she said next year might be a different story.

“Hopefully, knocking on wood, I’ll have a job by this time next year,” Richardson said. “(The convention) felt more like a good training ground for what’s to come.”

Zhang said she believes she has a better idea of the journalistic avenues she wants to explore, like the intersection of data visualization and art.

Her biggest takeaway is to pursue what speaks to her heart — something she said she wants to continue to nurture during her time at NU and share as an upcoming peer advisor.

“One thing I realized is that it is possible as an Asian American in this field to venture on and be your own director and own your narrative,” Zhang said. “I want to share this spirit with other students and other people who might share some of the identities I have or might not, and that in itself is part of what I think storytelling really is.”

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Josephine Walker (MSJ23) is the recipient of Medill’s fellowship with Reuters and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)

Through funding provided by Medill and Reuters, Walker will receive tuition support for the 2022-2023 academic year. She also will complete a summer internship at Reuters in New York and have opportunities to be mentored by editors from the news agency throughout her studies at Medill.

Walker will pursue her Master of Science in Journalism at Medill with a specialization in Social Justice. She is a recent alumna of Virginia Commonwealth University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Bachelor of Science in mass communications.

“I know that my journalistic potential is boundless, and I’m ready to absorb the plethora of teachings and opportunities Reuters and Medill have to offer,” said Walker. “I know my guiding purpose is to serve my community and I’m thrilled to take on the challenges of this next step in my pursuit of holding truth to power.”

Before arriving at Medill this fall, Walker will spend the summer as a news intern for Bloomberg News. Previously, she was an NABJ fellow for “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” and an intern at the Globe Post. Walker has bylines in the Washington Post, the Associated Press, the Guardian UK and more.

During her previous studies, she reported on the Virginia General Assembly for VCU’s Capital News Service. She was also director of communications for VCU’s chapter of NABJ and social media director for its chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists. She won two VCU Black History in the Making Awards.

“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to support Josephine as she takes the next step in her promising journalism career,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Reuters and NABJ and believe this type of fellowship serves the industry, Medill and students well.”

“These scholarships allow Reuters to support the next generation of journalists and create a more diverse and inclusive news industry. It has never been more crucial that news organizations reflect the world they cover, and we are deeply committed to helping create a diverse field of journalism that benefits our own news industry,” said Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni.

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NU/Medill Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the African American Studies Department

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 3, 2022
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African American Studies 50th image with May 20 date

by Julianne Sun (BSJ24)

Northwestern’s African American Studies Department (AFAM) will be hosting and celebrating its 50th anniversary on May 20, 2022. The event will celebrate all that the department has achieved to date since its inception, as well as map out what they hope the next 50 years will look like. The anniversary celebration will be available both in-person at the Block Museum of Art and virtually over Zoom. Current students and faculty are welcome to attend, as well as alumni and anyone else who might be interested.

AFAM finds its roots in the Bursar’s Office Takeover in 1968, according to Northwestern’s commemorative web page of the historical event. Otherwise known as the May 4th Agreement, it marks the 38-hour peaceful occupation of the Bursar’s Office by 120 Black Northwestern students. The occupation protested the issues of racism Black students encountered on campus, but presented a list of demands for the university. These included increasing the percentage of Black students in the incoming student population, providing more and greater scholarships for Black students, designating separate living spaces for Black students, and creating a separate Black student union. The Black House on Sheridan is a direct result of the occupier’s efforts, and functions as the Black student union to this day.

“It is important to celebrate this 50-year milestone to give honor and respect to all of the people who did the work and made the sacrifices for us to exist today,” said Mary Pattillo, the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African American Studies and chair of AFAM, “and to celebrate the people who have been educated by this department over the years.” The research done by AFAM alumni – from law to medicine to journalism to education to social justice – is all encompassing, and AFAM’s overarching goal is to “address that research to the aims of Black liberation.”

Despite the progress made by the May 4th Agreement and AFAM’s 50 years of work, the goals expressed during the Bursar’s Office Takeover remain unchanged. AFAM faculty have published hundreds of scholarly books and academic articles challenging the boundaries of studying race, gender, sexuality, and culture, but they have also led and participated in countless struggles, from increasing Black enrollment and faculty to the anti-apartheid movement.

“Our impact on our students,” said Pattillo, “on Northwestern, on academic fields, and on Evanston and Chicago and beyond, will continue to be our work in the years to come.”

Raedell Boateng, a Northwestern alum who graduated from her undergrad in 2007 with a major in journalism and a minor in AFAM, said “My decision to minor in AFAM studies was 100 percent grounded in how much my Black femininity was not seen/valued and [that was] why the telling of our stories became very important to me during my undergrad. I found that the promoting of objectivity in journalism wasn’t going to work for me, but how to craft a story—the visuals, the words, the sources of information—is the most important thing I learned in Medill.”

Realizing in her senior year that she didn’t want to be a journalist, Boateng went on to become a teacher through Teaching for America, a nonprofit organization that trains teachers to expand opportunities for low-income students. She is now an educator and liberation life coach and uses Black women’s stories and experiences as a launching point across all of her work.

“I can’t imagine not being an educator,” she said, “and my experiences in Medill and AFAM studies play a huge role in how I approached teaching and in what I do now. I also entered into teaching wanting students to see the world through windows and mirrors—to value others and value who they are—and to understand how privilege creates barriers to holding such values, but literature, storytelling, and justice will help us overcome.”

Regarding this momentous anniversary, Pattillo said, “We decided to make this like a reunion and to celebrate the students who have come through the classrooms over the last half-century. Come to see old classmates. Come to see former professors. Come to see old colleagues. Come to find out what people have done since you last saw them. Come to see how strong the department is because of the people who make it up. Come to hear how African American Studies acts in the world to make it better.”

Registration for the in person anniversary can be found here, and the virtual event registration can be found here.

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Medill inducts six alumni into 2022 Hall of Achievement class

Post author By Lauren Loeffler
Post date April 25, 2022
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Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications welcomes six inductees into its Hall of Achievement for 2022. The distinction honors alumni whose careers have had positive effects on their fields.

“The Medill Hall of Achievement class this year reflects the breadth of Medill’s influence through many industries including media but also well beyond it,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “These exemplary alumni demonstrate that a Medill education can take you anywhere and give you the opportunity to do anything.”

Juan Cappello (MSJ66)

Juan C. Cappello’s work as a journalist and strategic communications executive has been recognized by professional and civic organizations in the U.S. and overseas. Early in his career, Cappello received the Inter American Press Association Award for Young Journalists. In the field of strategic communications, he was the senior vice president, corporate affairs/marketing for ITT Corporation for almost two decades – the first Latin-born top corporate officer at a U.S.-based Fortune 500 company. Before founding his own strategic communications consulting firm in 2009, Cappello was president and partner of Hill & Knowlton in Latin America. He has been recognized by nongovernmental organizations and international groups, and he has also received official decorations from the governments of Austria, France and Chile, after its return to democracy in the 1990s, for his participation in human rights and cultural initiatives.

Melissa Grady Dias (IMC98)

Melissa Grady Dias was appointed global chief marketing officer of Cadillac in September 2019. As CMO, Grady Dias leads strategic marketing for the Cadillac brand around the world. Recently, Grady Dias was recognized by Forbes as one of “The 50 Most Influential CMOs in the World.” Prior to joining Cadillac, she was senior vice president of performance marketing, digital and e-commerce of Jackson Hewitt, where she was responsible for all demand driving activities including television and jacksonhewitt.com as well as the implementation of a hyper-local digital media program across several thousand locations. Before Jackson Hewitt, Grady Dias led digital acquisition on the global marketing team at MetLife where she led digital strategy for the U.S. market and acquisition programs for several lines of business, resulting in large year-over-year growth, and managed metrics plans and insights across all key global markets. Prior to MetLife, Grady Dias led the global analytics, e-commerce marketing, and CRM teams at Motorola.

Clinton Kelly (MSJ93)

Clinton Kelly co-hosted TLC’s wildly popular makeover show “What Not to Wear” for 10 years, and for seven he moderated ABC’s daytime talk show “The Chew,” for which he won an Emmy. He has also been regularly featured on HGTV and Food Network. A former magazine editor (Marie Claire, Mademoiselle and others) and freelance writer, Kelly has authored several books, including the critically acclaimed “I Hate Everyone, Except You,” a collection of humorous personal essays. In 2020 Kelly took a break from television to focus on his writing, working with personal styling clients and hosting regular Style Esteem workshops, through which he helps people evaluate their wardrobes to fine tune their nonverbal messaging.

Mike McGrew (IMC97)

Stephanie Mehta (MSJ92)

Stephanie Mehta is CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures, the business media company that publishes Fast Company and Inc. She previously spent nearly four years as editor-in-chief of Fast Company, overseeing its print, digital and live journalism. Mehta has held senior writing and editing positions at Vanity Fair, Fortune, Bloomberg Media and The Wall Street Journal. She received a BA in English from Northwestern and her MSJ from Medill. A Chicago-area native, she now lives with her husband and two daughters in Scarsdale, New York.

Michael Paul Williams (MSJ81)

Michael Paul Williams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning metro columnist whose opinion pieces appear on the Op-Ed page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In 2021, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary “for penetrating and historically insightful columns that guided Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, through the painful and complicated process of dismantling the city’s monuments to white supremacy.” Williams, a Richmond native, is a graduate of Virginia Union University and Medill. He won Virginia Press Association awards for column writing in 1992, 1994, 2007 and 2014. During 1999-2000, he was one of 24 U.S. and international journalists awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Medill will honor the 2022 Hall of Achievement classes on May 19 in Chicago.