- Faculty member Jen Chaney, wrote an article on “How Clueless became a classic 20 years ago” for CBS News.
- Faculty member Natalie Hopkinson wrote a story about Transgender’s Fight for Visibility and Respect for Take Part Web site.
- Faculty member Jen Chaney wrote The Definitive Oral History of How Clueless Became an Iconic 90s Classic (yes that movie, Clueless)for Vanity Fair Magazine
- Assistant Dean Amy Kovac-Ashley was interviewed by the Association of Alternatives Newsmedia for the Journalism participation at the AAN Awards.
- Faculty member Matt Apuzzo was the lead writer on the article about FIFA’s corruption charges story at the New York Times.
Category Archives: Faculty News
Faculty Work – Spring 2015
- Faculty member Ryan Teague Beckwith published this article for Time.com. The Journalism program is proud to announce that our faculty members Ben de La Cruz and Whitney Shefte (both Video Journalism instructors) recently won multiple awards in the “2015 Eyes of History: Multimedia Contest” hosted by The White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA). (03/2015)
- Ben de la Cruz won three different awards for his work with NPR:
- First place – News Story: “They Are The Body Collectors: A Perilous Job in The Time of Ebola”.
- Award of Excellence – Issue Reporting: “How will you die?”
- Third place – Feature Story: “The Blind Woman Who Saw Rain”. (03/2015)
- Whitney Shefte won four different awards for her work with The Washington Post:
- First place – Documentary: “One Family, Two Sacrifices”.
- Second place – Feature Story: “From Clubfoot To Climbing: Double Amputee Life of Adventure”.
- Second place – Issue Reporting: “In Alaska Native Villages, Little Protection Leaves Resident at Risk”.
- Third place – Issue Reporting: “Justice is Slow to arrive for Native women”. (03/2015)
- Faculty member Ryan Teague Beckwith’s grammar quiz for his students in Reporting and News Writing was recently picked up by The Telegraph. (03/2015)
- Faculty member Alan Bjerga was recently on Bloomberg TV reporting on falling farm incomes. Watch here. (03/2015)
Introducing our New Program Director
Gina Garcia
We are excited to feature Gina Garcia our new Journalism Program Director. Gina joins us as an Emmy nominated Producer from the CBS This Morning, a national morning news program. For nearly 15 years, she’s been producing daily hard news and feature stories, field producing and booking guests for national network morning news programs in the Washington DC Bureau.
MPS JO: Tell us about your previous experience in Journalism.
Gina Garcia: For the past six years at CBS, I’ve crafted and shared stories covering the Washington DC region and beyond such as election coverage, congressional legislation, undercover consumer, medical and feature stories. Some of my favorite segments featured the ordinary people with extraordinary experiences. Before CBS News, I spent five years with NBC’s Today Show, where I field produced and booked exclusive segments during the Virginia Tech Massacre, Amish school shootings, Sago Mine Tragedy, hurricanes affecting the gulf coast and the campaign leading up to President Barack Obama’s election, among others. I also, had the opportunity to travel to Cuba to report on the conditions of the people and government.
Faculty member Natalie Hopkinson moderates a citywide forum on education
Faculty member Natalie Hopkinson was the moderator at the Oct. 22 Mayoral Forum for Education, where she questioned three candidates running for mayor in the District about their policies regarding public and charter schools in the city.
Opening with comments about her firsthand experience as a D.C. parent, Hopkinson asked candidates Muriel Bowser, David Catania and Carol Schwartz about coordination between the city’s public schools and charter schools and whether the growth of charter schools in the District is sustainable.
The forum can be viewed online here.
Hopkinson has taught Culture Reporting and worked with Capstone students.
Faculty member Ryan Beckwith joins Time magazine
Congratulations to faculty member Ryan Teague Beckwith for his new position as senior editor in Time’s Washington bureau. Prior to his new job, Beckwith was news editor for the Washington Examiner.
He has also worked for Digital First Media, CQ Roll Call and The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
Beckwith teaches Reporting and News Writing in the Journalism program.
Faculty member Robyn Tomlin presents at the International Newsroom Summit
Faculty member Robyn Tomlin spoke on Oct. 13 as part of the International Newsroom Summit in Amsterdam about the importance of digital tools for data journalism.
Tomlin explained the four phases to tell a story with data: “The process of ‘data, filter, visualize and story’ is how you do data journalism,” she said. She also shared some key tools for working with data, such as datacatalogs.org and Tabula.
Tomlin is the chief digital officer at the Pew Research Center and is teaching Digital Essentials for Journalists this semester.
Faculty member Derek Willis in the news
Congratulations to faculty member Derek Willis for being featured in two recent interviews about his work with The New York Times’ The Upshot.
Capital New York asked Willis about his role at The Upshot, how the team decides what stories to visualize and his thoughts on data journalism: “We can’t afford to treat data as some kind of specialty in the newsroom, especially when it can be such a valuable part of reporting. There’s no way I’d be at The New York Times if I didn’t have these skills, and I’m glad that more organizations are putting greater value on them,” he said.
Huffington Post Live interviewed Willis about tech firms failing to disclose their political donations, based on a story he co-wrote about an index created by the Center for Political Accountability.
Willis also recently took a trip to South Africa for his work on Open Elections and wrote about his experiences on Medium.
He teaches Data Reporting, which will be offered again this spring.
Faculty member Keith Jenkins is named general manager for National Geographic Digital
Congratulations to faculty member Keith Jenkins for his promotion to general manager for National Geographic Digital, where he will focus on strategy.
Jenkins has been part of National Geographic’s team since 2013, when he joined as director of digital photography. Prior to his new position, he was executive editor for digital content.
Jenkins teaches Multimedia Storytelling in the Journalism program.
Five new faculty members join the MPS Journalism team
Our fall faculty met for orientation on Aug. 25 to get ready for the new semester. (A few folks are missing!) / Credit: Stephanie Melson
The Journalism program is pleased to welcome five new faculty members for the fall term: Jeremy Bowers, Adam Goldman, Zan Gillies, Julie Moos and Robyn Tomlin:
- Jeremy Bowers, an interactive developer for The New York Times, will be teaching Web Development for Media.
- Zan Gillies, the Digital Media Center manager at Georgetown Downtown, will be assisting with Video Journalism.
- Adam Goldman is a reporter for The Washington Post covering national security and co-author of “Enemies Within.” Goldman will be co-teaching Covering National Security.
- Julie Moos is the senior digital editor in the Washington bureau of McClatchy. She will be co-teaching Digital Essentials.
- Robyn Tomlin is the chief digital officer at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. She will be co-teaching Digital Essentials.
We also want to welcome back our returning faculty members: Linda Kramer Jenning, Matt Apuzzo, Carole Feldman, Brian Healy, Jon DeNunzio, Keith Jenkins, Emma Patti, Jeff Sonderman, Ryan Beckwith and Whitney Shefte.
CNN names David Chalian political director
Congratulations to faculty member David Chalian, who was recently promoted to political director of CNN. Chalian joined CNN in the summer of 2013 as the supervising producer for “Crossfire.” He has previously worked at Politico, ABC News, Yahoo News and PBS NewsHour.
Chalian co-teaches Political Reporting in the Journalism program.