Class of 2024

The journalists selected for the Nieman class of 2024 are working on ambitious projects ranging from the climate crisis to artificial intelligence. The group includes investigative reporters, podcasters, documentary filmmakers, an open-source researcher, writers, video and photojournalists, a film critic, a television news producer, a media analyst and senior editors and newsroom leaders who direct innovative journalism ventures in the U.S. and abroad.

They cover politics, sports, religion, arts and culture, the environment, human rights, abortion, science and deepening rifts in society, among other topics. And they work online, in print, on air and in emerging digital spaces.

At Harvard, the fellows are examining growing threats to democracy and the free press; the use of AI in reporting; innovations in storytelling; political polarization; trauma; climate destabilization; scientific advances in health care; reporting under repressive regimes; solutions journalism; media trust; and journalism collaboration.

Read the class announcement.

Manasseh Azure Awuni is the founding editor-in-chief of The Fourth Estate, a nonprofit, public interest and investigative journalism project of the Media Foundation for West Africa in Ghana. He previously worked as a senior broadcast journalist for Ghana’s Multimedia Group, where he founded and led the organization’s investigative journalism desk. Manasseh’s reporting exposed government corruption that led to the jailing of three people, criminal charges against four others, the cancellation of fraudulent contracts worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars and the dismissal of dozens of corrupt officials. His work led to the passage of a law by parliament to regulate the operations of Ghana’s youth employment program after Manasseh uncovered systemic corruption in its implementation. His reporting also resulted in the abolishment of a policy that sent pregnant nursing and midwifery students home until after delivery. His journalism awards include 2012 Ghana Journalist of the Year, 2018 and 2020 West Africa Journalist of the Year, 2021 Integrity Personality of the Year and the 2021 Millennium Excellence Award for Journalism and Media Personality. He is the author of four books, including “Investigative Journalism in Africa: A Practical Manual.”

He is researching sustainable funding and managerial models for nonprofit newsrooms in Africa, where press freedom is increasingly threatened.

Twitter: @Manasseh_Azure
Instagram: @manassehazureawuni
Facebook: Manasseh Azure Awuni

James Barragán is a politics reporter for The Texas Tribune who focuses on accountability journalism. He covers the national impact of Texas’ regulations on voting rights, immigration and other major policy areas. His reporting helped uncover an attempt by state officials to purge tens of thousands of people from the voter rolls and the results of the state’s push to send thousands of National Guardsmen to deter migration at the state’s southern border. Prior to joining the Tribune, he worked as a statehouse reporter for The Dallas Morning News and reported for the Austin American-Statesman and the Los Angeles Times. In 2021, he was a finalist for the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Reporting for his Dallas Morning News coverage of Texas politics during the COVID-19 pandemic. He additionally was a 2023 finalist for a Livingston Award for local reporting for “Operation Lone Star,” a series he reported with Davis Winkie for The Texas Tribune and Military Times.

He is studying the deterioration of traditional democratic norms in the U.S., such as press access to government officials and proceedings, the impact that has on the availability of reliable information and the dangers posed by those who benefit from the rollbacks.

Twitter: @JamesBarragan

Julia Barton is vice president and executive editor at Pushkin Industries, an audio production company based in New York, where she leads a team of editors, develops training sessions and oversees the company’s editorial standards. She has been the lead story editor on several Pushkin narrative podcasts and audiobooks including “The Last Archive,” hosted by Jill Lepore; “Against the Rules,” hosted by Michael Lewis; “Revisionist History,” hosted by Malcolm Gladwell; “Cautionary Tales,” hosted by Tim Harford; “Not Lost,” hosted by Brendan Francis Newnam; and “Into the Zone,” hosted by Hari Kunzru. Barton also is the editor and host of the audiobook anthology “The Best Audio Storytelling: 2022.” A longtime editor and reporter, she has produced pieces for PRI’s “Studio 360,” “99% Invisible,” and “Radiolab,” among other programs. Barton previously worked as a senior editor for PRI’s “The World” and has been a regular contributor to Nieman Storyboard.

She is studying the history of rhetoric, audio and spoken-word forms, from speech writing to sermons to film, with a focus on the cultural history of narrative conventions in the U.S. and the role of radio in movements for social change.

Twitter: @bartona104

Julian Benbow is a sports reporter at The Boston Globe, where he has worked for the past 17 years. He joined the Globe as a sports intern in 2006 after internships at the Naples Daily News, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and The Tampa Tribune. He has covered high school sports, all four professional sports beats in Boston, including baseball, basketball, hockey and football, and everything in between, providing game coverage, features and profiles. He has also contributed occasionally to the Globe’s Living/Arts section, writing commentary on music and culture.

He is studying data science and data visualization to help interpret and present the data fueling sports and sports coverage, as well as parallels between athleticism and art.

Twitter: @julianbenbow

Elsie Chen is a Chinese journalist based in Shenzhen, China. She previously worked for The New York Times in Beijing and Seoul, covering China’s social trends, demographics and health care. Her reporting has taken her from the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan to the anti-government protests in Hong Kong. In early 2020, Chen was one of the first foreign media journalists on the ground in Wuhan, where she reported on the early spread of the coronavirus and the unprecedented city lockdown. She interviewed the whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang as part of the Times coverage that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. She was also on a team of Times journalists that was named a finalist in the journalistic innovation category by the Society of Publishers in Asia for an investigation into police abuse during the 2019 Hong Kong protests.

She is studying the work of independent journalism within social movements. Immediately following her studies at Harvard, Chen will begin a nine-month reporting fellowship with The Associated Press as part of a new Nieman-AP partnership supported by Schmidt Futures.

Twitter: @elsiechenyi

Ben Curtis is a photojournalist and East Africa bureau chief for The Associated Press based in Nairobi, Kenya. He was previously based in Cairo, Egypt, as chief photographer and photo editor in charge of AP’s Middle East operations, and before that was the agency’s West Africa photographer, based in Dakar, Senegal. Curtis has covered conflicts, uprisings, elections and general news throughout Africa and the Middle East. He has photographed the Arab Spring protests, Saddam Hussein’s trial in Baghdad, the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Rio, London, and Athens and other major sporting events including Wimbledon Tennis. His photojournalism has won numerous awards from groups including World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, the National Press Photographers Association and the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar.

He is studying mental health issues arising from conflict and other traumatic events, focusing on psychology, neuroscience and PTSD, and the impact of these issues on journalism.

Lebo Diseko is a South African correspondent for the BBC World Service based in London who focuses on international news and global religion. Previously, as North America correspondent for BBC News, she covered the 2020 U.S. presidential election and was the only BBC correspondent inside the U.S. Capitol complex during the January 6 insurrection. She covered the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, reporting from Minneapolis as the verdict was delivered. In 2022, she reported from Brazil in the lead up to that country’s presidential election, speaking with key voters: evangelical Christian women of color. Diseko has reported extensively on the African continent, most recently covering stories such as grand scale corruption known as state capture in South Africa, the U.K.-Rwanda migrant deal and calls to reshape post-colonial relationships with Britain. She tells stories across a range of digital platforms, as well as TV and radio, with new and underserved audiences at the heart of her work.

She is studying how journalists can adapt to and help protect democracy from the rising threats of post-truth politics, populism and polarization, with a focus on new ways to engage audiences.

Target: @lebodiseko

Sonya Groysman is a Russian reporter and video documentary director for TV Rain, Russia’s last independent television channel who lives and works in exile. Her work focuses on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the crackdown on dissent in her country and people’s resistance to it. Previously, she worked as a reporter and producer at the investigative news outlet Proekt (Project), which was shut down by the Russian government. As one of the first Russian journalists declared a foreign agent, an attempt by Russian authorities to discredit independent reporters, she started the podcast “Hi, You’re a Foreign Agent” with her colleague Olga Churakova. The podcast received the Medusa Award for the best podcast in Russian and five episodes were nominated for the Russian Editorial Board Award. In 2021, she received a Redkollegiya Award for the video investigation “How Dark PR made it to Russian Wikipedia.” In 2022, she was a finalist for the Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Award for journalism.

She is studying how journalism can help society deal with collective and individual trauma related to war, state repression and polarization.

Twitter: @SonyaGro
Instagram: @sonyagro

Cristela Guerra is a senior arts and culture reporter at WBUR in Boston, a queer Panamanian journalist of color and a moderator who facilitates and leads conversations around race, identity and equity. Before working in public radio, she was a newspaper journalist working at The Boston Globe and The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida. They’ve covered hurricanes and blizzards; written about breaking news and immigration policy; worked local and state government beats; and consistently uplifted stories of the LGBTQ+ community. Her work received a regional and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2014 for reporting about a family caring for an ill son and another regional Murrow Award in 2023 for her work at the U.S.-Mexico border on the journey of Venezuelans migrants. She was chosen as a 2019 Latina Leader by Amplify Latinx and selected by YW Boston for the organization’s Sylvia Ferrell-Jones Award and its 2023 Academy of Women Achievers. They are the vice-president of the New England Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, vice-chair of the board at RAW Art Works and a board member at the cultural community The Jar.

She is examining stories from the diaspora, including those of her own Panamanian heritage, the reasons that compel people to migrate and how those individuals build community and maintain connections to their cultural identity.

Target: @CristelaGuerra

Denise Hruby is an Austrian environment and investigative journalist focusing on the climate and biodiversity crises. She writes for The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, The Washington Post and CNN, as well as in German for publications like Die Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Her investigations have exposed global wildlife trafficking networks. Before moving to Vienna, she was a reporter and senior editor based in China and Southeast Asia, where she was named Young Environmental Journalist of the Year in 2014 by the Singapore Environment Council and won several awards from The Society of Publishers in Asia and Amnesty International. Hruby has received multiple grants and fellowships, including the Logan Science Journalism Fellowship and a fellowship from the International Women’s Media Foundation in South Sudan. She has taught journalism at universities in China, Cambodia and Austria.

She is studying how journalists can improve reporting on climate change and biodiversity to better inform solutions to the planet’s problems. She will share her findings in a digital handbook, workshops and a curriculum that will train other journalists and students.

Twitter: @nisnis

Beandrea July is an independent arts and culture journalist, film critic and audio producer based in Los Angeles. Most recently, she was a producer on the 2023 CNN podcast “The Prince Mixtape.” Her work appears regularly in The New York Times and SEEN, a journal of film and visual culture. Her reporting on women aged 50+ in the movies has led to the securing of millions of dollars in financing for films about characters from this demographic. She was invited to join the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 2020 and she is a certified “Top Critic” on Rotten Tomatoes. Her writing has been published by Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, Time, NPR Digital and Hyperallergic, and her film commentary has been featured on the nationally syndicated NPR program “1A.” She got her start in community-based journalism as an education reporter in Philadelphia.

She is studying the social impact of the racial empathy gap in movies and on television and the role journalists can play in bridging that gap.

Twitter: @beandreadotcom

Jikyung Kim is a deputy editor, anchor and writer who covers political news at the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), one of South Korea’s national television networks. During her time at MBC, she has produced political, social and current events programs and documentaries. As a reporter, she has covered information and technology, human rights news and other topics and stories ranging from the Fukushima earthquake to the Beijing Olympics. She was an anchor for the morning news at MBC and produced and presented a political commentary segment for the network’s main evening news program. She has received numerous awards for her work including an Amnesty International Award for her work on issues relating to the human rights of the disadvantaged. She is author of “I Decide My Spot,” a book that describes the discriminatory behavior she has experienced as a female anchor and as a political reporter.

She is examining ethical standards in the digital age for reporting on stories about suffering.

Javier Lafuente is deputy managing editor of the American edition of the Spanish newspaper El País. Based in Mexico City, he oversees the Mexico, Colombia and Chile bureaus as well as the correspondents in the region, managing a team of over 70 people. Lafuente has been covering Latin America since 2015, when he became a correspondent covering Colombia, Venezuela and the Andean region. He was later named chief of the El País Mexico bureau. He had previously covered sports and general news as a reporter for the paper in Spain. In 2020, Lafuente co-edited “Frontera Sur” a special investigative report on the Mexican southern border with Central America that was produced in partnership with El Faro. The project won a Gabo Award for best coverage and was named as best digital project by WAN-IFRA. In 2022, WAN-IFRA also named El País América as best news site in Latin America. Lafuente has led Pan-American investigations on the links between Venezuela and Mexico, which have also won prizes. He co-edited the book “Rabia. Crónicas contra el cinismo en América Latina” and is a partner in the Spanish nonfiction publishing house Libros del K.O.

He is studying the evolution of new left-wing governments in Latin America, how they differ with those who governed the region during the first decade of the 21st century and their relationship with the media.

Twitter: @lafuentejavi

Yana Lyushnevskaya is a senior journalist and deputy editor-in-chief in the Kyiv bureau of BBC Monitoring, a division of the BBC that reports on and analyzes global media. She covers media, political and security developments in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, her coverage has focused on exploring Ukrainian media’s response to the war. Prior to that, she covered major stories including the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine, writing stories on the conflict for BBC outlets in English, Ukrainian and Russian. She is a frequent contributor to the BBC’s television and radio programs and a speaker on panel discussions and webinars. She previously worked as a news editor and radio presenter at the Black Sea TV and Radio Company in her home region of Crimea. She is also the host of independent podcast Kyiv Wide Open, exploring the past and present of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

She is studying how media in conflict-torn countries can transition from war to peace and contribute to creating a post-war media environment that is free, diverse and pluralistic.

Twitter: @YanaLshnvsk
Facebook: Yana Lyushnevskaya

Ilya Marritz is a reporter who covers threats to democracy for ProPublica and Trump legal matters for NPR from upstate New York. He co-hosted “Will Be Wild,” an audio documentary about the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021 and “Trump, Inc.” an investigative podcast from ProPublica and WNYC that won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award. He also was host of “The Season,” a podcast about efforts by Columbia University’s struggling football team to make a comeback. A longtime public radio journalist, his work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Time, The Daily News and New York Magazine. He previously worked as a senior reporter for WNYC in New York covering technology, Wall Street, real estate, retail and small business. His stories have been finalists for the Loeb and IRE awards. He is a past recipient of a Richard Holbrooke reporting grant and a DAAD academic scholarship.

He is studying the forces that are driving authoritarianism and dis- and misinformation and putting democracy under strain in diverse societies around the world.

Twitter: @ilyamarritz

Andrea Patiño Contreras is a Colombian video journalist and editor based in Boston who explores questions of migration and mobility, as well as gender and sexual violence. Her most recent film, “#IamVanessaGuillen” examines the mental health impact of military sexual violence and was a finalist for a Livingston Award. For the last several years Andrea has worked at Univision Noticias Digital and The Boston Globe producing documentaries and multimedia projects. Her work has been recognized by the Hillman Foundation, the national Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Emmys and the Gracie Awards, among others. She is the co-founder of the media studio Rabbit Raccoon.

She is studying how journalists can create trauma-informed practices when reporting on vulnerable populations, particularly survivors of sexual violence.

Twitter: @andreapatinoc

Rachel Pulfer is executive director of Journalists for Human Rights in Toronto, where she has overseen an expansion in media development programming from Africa and North America to the Middle East and Central Asia. She arrived at JHR in 2010 after 11 years as a reporter and editor for Canadian Business, the Walrus, Azure and the Montreal Gazette. She has written on topics ranging from human rights and international development to the intersection of business and public policy. She received a 2022 honorary degree in journalism from Loyalist College in Ontario and the Michener Baxter Award for Excellence in Public Service Journalism.

She is researching how human rights journalism can inform and improve policymaking in and for developing countries. Pulfer is the 2024 Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow.

Twitter: @RachelPulfer

Andrew Ryan is a reporter on The Boston Globe’s Quick Strike investigative team, focusing on police, prosecutors and public officials. Previously, as a member of the Globe’s Spotlight Team, he was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series examining race in Boston and shared in an AIPS Sport Media award for the investigative podcast “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.” He also was part of the staff that won a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. Earlier in his career, he served as City Hall bureau chief after launching the Globe’s online news desk in 2006. His other honors include a 2020 Online Journalism explanatory reporting award for the Spotlight Team’s “Seeing Red” series about traffic problems in Boston; a National Headliner team award and a National Association of Black Journalists award for the 2013 series “68 Blocks: Life, Death, Hope”; and a 2003 Rookie of the Year award from the New England Press Association. Prior to joining the Globe, Ryan worked for The Associated Press, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Day of New London, Conn., and the Highbridge Horizon in the Bronx.

He is studying how reinvigorated accountability reporting at the local level could be used to establish fresh footholds in news deserts. This will include examining whether artificial intelligence might help augment local investigative reporting.

Twitter: @GlobeAndrewRyan

Denise Schrier Cetta is a producer and writer for “60 Minutes” at CBS News, where she has covered news events and social issues for over 25 years. Her reporting includes scientific breakthroughs, in-depth profiles, investigations and stories about racial justice and child welfare. Her stories have exposed corporate corruption, led to exonerations, been cited in a congressional hearing and contributed to a peer-reviewed scientific publication. Prior to joining “60 Minutes,” Cetta produced documentaries for Walter Cronkite, Discovery Communications and CNN. She started her career with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Charles Guggenheim. Her work as a journalist has been recognized with top industry honors, including Edward R. Murrow, Emmy, Sigma Delta Chi and The National Association of Black Journalists awards.

Cetta is working to understand how scientific and technological advances in genetics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and longevity are poised to improve the health and life expectancy of billions of people, while also threatening to increase inequality between individuals who have access to those advances and those who do not.

Surabhi Tandon is an Emmy-nominated video journalist, reporter and documentary filmmaker from India. Her work spans directing, producing, shooting, editing and on-camera reportage. She has reported from more than 15 countries and for media outlets including Vice, the BBC, France Télévisions, Al Jazeera, The Economist, Canal+ and Arte. From 2013 to 2018, she was a correspondent for France24 in South Asia. Her stories focus on character exploration in the contexts of climate change, social inequality, political upheaval and human rights violations. Tandon has spent over a decade honing various storytelling crafts and in 2018, she co-founded Miya Biwi Films to experiment and push the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction storytelling formats.

She is researching the science and history of impactful storytelling with a focus on analyzing which elements of video journalism that are most resonant and what stories stick in an age of information overload.

Twitter: @ihbarus
Instagram: @ihbarus

Jaemark Tordecilla spent the last nine years as the head of digital media at GMA News in the Philippines, where he oversaw all online publishing and audience development activities and founded the network’s Digital Video Lab. Under his leadership, GMA News Online was recognized by the Reuters Institute Digital News Report as the top online source of news in the Philippines. It also has been honored for its longform features, journalism innovation, audience engagement, and digital documentary storytelling by the World Association of News Publishers, the Society of Publishers in Asia and the New York Festivals, among other organizations. In 2021, Tordecilla won a TOYM Award, one of the Philippines’ top honors for young civic leaders, for his work in digital journalism. He began his journalism career at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism where he was part of the team that won Agence France-Presse’s Kate Webb Prize for coverage of the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre in which dozens of journalists were murdered. He also helped train journalists from Myanmar living in exile in Thailand.

Coming from an ecosystem where journalists are regularly targeted for critical reporting and digital platforms are rife with misinformation, he is studying audience trust in media organizations and what newsrooms can do to win and strengthen trust and build engagement with their audiences.

Twitter: @jaemark

Sarah Varney is a senior correspondent for KFF Health News and a special correspondent and commentator for PBS NewsHour who focuses on reproductive and sexual health care and racial and ethnic health disparities. Reporting from around the country, she works across platforms, and regularly produces feature-length segments for both PBS NewsHour and NPR. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times and KFF’s other print partners. Since the end of federal abortion rights in the U.S., she has chronicled the seismic fallout on medical care and documenting what lies ahead for women’s rights. Her Guardian series on India’s booming opioid market won SABEW’s international reporting award, and her New York Times story on the Affordable Care Act’s benefits for victims of gun violence won the top newspaper award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Previously, Varney established the health beat for San Francisco-based NPR station KQED and its statewide news program “The California Report,” shaping coverage to include the connections between economic and social conditions and disease. That work won dozens of awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She is studying the journalistic framing and ethics of abortion coverage in the United States, focusing on the intersection of religion, sociology, politics, medicine and gender.

Twitter: @SarahVarney4

Johanna Wild is a German open-source researcher at the investigative nonprofit Bellingcat in Amsterdam, where she is part of the overall strategy team. She founded the organization’s investigative tech team, which conducts data-driven investigations and develops tools for online researchers, often in collaboration with technical volunteers. In 2022, the group created a research dashboard to investigate online ideologies across Europe and Wild has used the tool to research the QAnon movement in Germany. Previously, she founded a startup that developed a social listening tool for newsrooms and provided online verification workshops for journalists. She also worked as a media advisor at the Civil Peace Service program of the German development agency GIZ, helping journalists in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo produce radio broadcasts for the Voice of America (VOA) and set up their own nonprofit organization. She additionally supported local journalists from Yemen with conflict reporting.

She is studying how open-source research tools can be collaboratively built, maintained and made accessible to the diverse global researcher community.

Twitter: @JohannaWild

Annie Jieping Zhang is founder and CEO of Matters Lab, a decentralized Web3 social media platform located in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She also co-founded and was the editor-in-chief of Initium Media, an online Chinese-language publication established in Hong Kong in 2015. Under her leadership, Initium won 40 regional journalism awards in three years. She previously worked as an editor at City Magazine; chief writer and executive editor-in-chief for iSun Affairs, an iPad-based magazine offering political and social news; and as a reporter for Asia Week. Between 2006 and 2015, she wrote extensively about the governance, politics and social movements in mainland China and Hong Kong. The Society of Publishers in Asia named Zhang Journalist of the Year in 2010 and presented her with other a number of awards for her reporting and commentary. Other honors include several Human Rights Press Awards and the Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award, among other prizes. Zhang is the author of “Three Years in Hong Kong.”

She is working on building decentralized support networks for independent journalists who face censorship and political repression.

Twitter: @AnnieJieping