The University of Michigan announced today the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows for the 2020-2021 academic year.

A cohort of 11 journalists from a range of backgrounds and experiences will participate in the newly created working fellowship, a reimagined Wallace House program designed to support ambitious reporting projects and adapted to the remote needs of COVID-19.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowships will provide an academic year of support and collaborative learning for journalists to pursue and publish rigorous projects examining pressing public challenges ranging from the responses to the prolonged pandemic to persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality.

Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will remain where they live while participating in weekly remote workshops, professional development sessions and seminars with University of Michigan faculty and experts.

“Finding a meaningful way to adapt our fellowship to meet this moment was essential. Directing our experience and resources toward direct support for journalists allows us to have an immediate impact in a moment when substantive reporting is of vital importance,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House. “The robust response we received to this newly structured Reporting Fellowship is a testament to the desire of reporters to serve the public and help move society forward.”

The Reporting Fellowship is designed to benefit both working journalists and U.S. newsrooms. Each reporting fellow will pair with a local or national news organization to develop and publish their reporting project. The support of the fellowship allows news organizations to pursue ambitious journalism that they may not have the staff or funding to support independently.

Journalism at Knight Foundation, a supporter of the fellowship programs. “These reporting fellowships allow individual journalists and news organizations to offer in-depth reporting to their communities on the critical issues of the day.”

Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will receive a stipend of $70,000 for the academic year plus an additional $10,000 in supplemental support to cover extra costs including health insurance, reporting equipment and supplemental travel-related expenses.

This adapted fellowship takes the place of the traditional, residential Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows and their reporting projects:

• Lisa Armstrong, multimedia journalist and associate professor, New York City
  Reporting Project: COVID-19 in Correctional Facilities for The Marshall Project
• Sindya Bhanoo, independent reporter, Austin, Texas
  Reporting Project: Distance Learning and Inequality in Public Schools for Mission Local
• Valeria Collazo Cañizares, investigative journalist, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  Reporting Project: Waterless Island: Converging Crises and the Water Shortage in Puerto Rico for Telemundo
• J. Lester Feder, independent journalist, Ypsilanti, Michigan
  Reporting Project: Inequality and the Transformation of the Cities and Suburbs of the Midwest
• Alissa Figueroa, senior editor and producer, Baltimore, Maryland
  Reporting Project: Police Reform Five Years After the Death of Freddie Gray
  for Type Investigations
• Mya Frazier, independent business reporter, Columbus, Ohio
  Reporting Project: Private Power: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Working Poor for Bloomberg Businessweek
• Ted Genoways, independent writer and producer, Lincoln, Nebraska
  Reporting Project: Food Security and Worker Safety on the Front Lines of the Pandemic
• Mario Koran, contributing reporter, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  Reporting Project: Barriers to learning in three marginalized school districts upended by the pandemic for The Guardian U.S.
• Chris Outcalt, independent magazine writer, Denver, Colorado
  Reporting Project: The Powerful Forces Behind Medical Fraud
• Nicholas St. Fleur, independent science reporter, Palo Alto, California
  Reporting Project: Racial Bias in Science, Health, and Medicine for STAT
• Mazin Sidahmed, co-executive director of Documented, New York City. Reporting Project: The Role of Local Police in Federal Immigration Enforcement for Documented

More information:

• Wallace House
• Knight Foundation