In this brief video, Dean Michael D. Bolden — who began his role as the school’s eighth dean last month — talks about the challenges for journalism and democracy today, but also the opportunities: “We need more journalists and more journalism than ever. Journalism is rising. It is rising to meet the needs of the moment.”
They come from across the nation and around the world, and we can’t wait to see what they do. A warm welcome to the Class of 2027!
News Roundup
Police Records Access Project launches nationwide with 1 million searches so far
Our Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) worked with UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (BIDS) and Stanford’s Big Local News — as well as dozens of journalists through the California Reporting Project and lawyers over many years — to launch the Police Records Access Project database in August. This first-of-its-kind database on police misconduct and use of force in California, now searchable by anyone with access to the internet, has already been searched more than 1 million times. The database is now accessible on KQED, CalMatters, the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and LAist.
California extends and expands historic investment in local news
In July, California legislators voted to expand the state’s historic commitment to local journalism with a $15 million budget allocation for fellowships to early-career reporters and editors and training to strengthen the economic viability of news outlets.
This commitment will fund another infusion of California Local News Fellows — the nation’s largest publicly funded journalism initiative based at UC Berkeley Journalism — and will expand the program to include editing fellows. Leadership and sustainability training and support for California newsrooms will be provided by the Maynard Institute’s Propel Initiative, in collaboration with California Black Media, the Latino Media Collaborative and American Community Media. Read the media release about this funding and a story in the Los Angeles Times about California’s commitment to local journalism.
Students report on ‘The Stakes’ of new federal policies
Since last spring, UC Berkeley Journalism students have been reporting on “The Stakes” of President Donald Trump’s executive orders and policies affecting scientific research, educational initiatives and other programs focused on health and well-being through a series of print, audio and video interviews and stories published by newsrooms statewide. Christine Schiavo, the school’s local news editor, Monica Campbell, director of the California Local News Fellowship and Shereen Marisol Meraji, Audio Program director, provided production oversight and editing.
“We’re doing what we do best in these unprecedented times to document the impacts on democracy, science and the rule of law,” said then-Interim Dean Elena Conis, professor of history and journalism. “We’re supporting students to do excellent journalism, by bearing witness to events in our communities and telling untold stories.”
Professor Shereen Marisol Meraji interviews David Hausman, professor at Berkeley Law and head of the Deportation Data Project about the executive order entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” Photo by Alicia Chiang (’25).
A major multimedia component of the project, called “The Stakes Explained,” was launched by Meraji and J-School students. This podcast and video series features UC Berkeley scholars and experts, including professors john a. powell, Travis Bristol, Cristina Mora, Eric Greenwald, Sarah Song and David Hausman.
Meraji, a longtime journalist and former NPR producer, reporter and podcast host, encouraged students in her Race and Journalism course this past spring to interview UC Berkeley scholars to unpack the anti-DEI measures, immigration policy shifts and regulatory rollbacks in President Trump’s executive orders. Those students, including Hallie Applebaum (’25) and Alicia Chiang (’25), recorded on-camera interviews and over the summer, two interns, WanYu Yao (’26) and Paul Ghusar (’26), moved the video component of the project forward.
The first iteration of “The Stakes Explained,” a four-part audio series, aired on NPR affiliate station KALW in mid-June. The companion videos can be found on the school’s YouTube channel and Instagram. The podcasts were also featured in an hourlong episode of Berkeley Talks on August 8.
Student News
The school welcomed 53 students from a wide range of backgrounds into the Class of 2027 this year: 64 percent are California residents with 76 percent overall coming from the U.S., across 9 states; 25 percent of students are international, coming from 12 countries; nearly 38 percent of our first-year students are first-generation and 36 percent identify as underrepresented minorities; 56 percent are students of color. The students range in age from 20 to 58. All of them promise to make contributions to journalism. Our Class of 2026 students spent the summer at news organizations around the country and the world. They published — a lot. Here’s a sampling of recent stories from, and news about, our first and second-year students:
Ava Hu (’26) and Megumi Tanaka (’25) published “Assault on Accessibility Initiatives Hits Early Career Scientists Hard” in Capital & Main, taking a close look at the Trump administration’s cuts to programs supporting people with disabilities.
Dune Strickland’s (’27) documentary UNEARTH screened at the Oakland Film Festival September 17. The film takes us to Bristol Bay, Alaska — home to one of the world’s last great salmon runs — where Native Alaskan activists and commercial fishermen are in a fight against a Vancouver-based mining company’s plan for North America’s largest open-pit copper mine.
Dune Strickland (’27)
Raginee Sudhir Chaurey (’27) was awarded a $5,000 scholarship from the South Asian Journalists Association — joining five other outstanding student recipients from around the globe who are pursuing a journalism degree in the United States.
Beck Klein’s (’26) investigation into runaway Oakland police overtime costs was published in The Oaklandside.
“The Stakes” summer intern Bryan Wen (’26) teamed up with alum and current California Local News fellow Zhe Wu (’23) on a story about the effects of the Trump administration’s actions on area food banks. The story was co-published by the San Francisco Public Press, CapRadio in Sacramento, Northern California Public Media and Richmond Confidential.
Jennifer Ugwa (’26)
Can an AI-guided robot help a California city resist sea level rise and sequester carbon? That’s the question Jennifer Ugwa (’26) seeks to answer in her in-depth story for Inside Climate News.
Richard H. Grant (’26) reports on the World Dog Surfing Championships in Pacifica for the San Francisco Chronicle. If you love — or even just kind of like dogs — you have to see these photos.
Lylah Schmedel-Permanna’s (’27) story “California colleges lost millions in Trump’s humanities purge” ran in CalMatters.
Summer Maxwell (’26) looks into the views of younger Californians for SF Gate and finds their top concerns have changed.
Lili Euzet (’26)
Lili Euzet (’26) published a story in Capital & Main about how as the senior workforce grows, more older Americans are staying in physically demanding jobs, often risking their health. Euzet reported this article for our 3 year “Aging In America” series through a grant from the SCAN Foundation.
Kelly Liu (’26) was named a Pulitzer Center Climate and Environment Reporting Fellow. Her project will document the Guna Indigenous community facing displacement due to rising sea levels in Panama.
Kelly Liu (’26)
Faculty News
Here’s a sampling of the work of our faculty, lecturers and staff out in the world — beyond the classroom:
Bernice Yeung, Investigative Reporting Program’s managing editor, and Aaron Glantz, a J-School lecturer, teamed up for a Guardian investigation into the dismantling of funding and programs to combat human trafficking, which found: “Anti-trafficking advocates say the federal government’s retreat will allow many human traffickers to operate with increased impunity.”
Lisa Armstrong published “When Neutrality is a Constraint. Journalism in the 1930s failed to communicate the danger of Hitler’s rise. Are we repeating the same mistake now?” in the Columbia Journalism Review.” She recently spoke at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive about Cheryle Dunye’s film “Stranger Inside.”
Professor Lisa Armstrong
The Berkeley Film Foundation announced that it will support five recent doc students and 29 independent filmmakers, including Professor Jason Spingarn-Koff (’01) for his film in production called “The Coral Rescuers.”
Edward Wasserman published two op-eds in the San Francisco Chronicle: “First Biden, now Trump — the media still hasn’t figured out how to cover advanced aging” and “Jimmy Kimmel’s treatment opens an entirely new chapter in American media repression.”
Berkeley Journalism’s Jennifer Redfearn (left) and ‘My Sweet Land’ filmmaker Sareen Hairabedian (right) in conversation following a film screening on September 18 at Berkeley Law.
Ken Light’s work is featured in the exhibit “Last West: Dorothea Lange’s California Revisited” at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, which opened on September 27. Coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the show presents Lange’s iconic work with rarely seen California images alongside the work of contemporary photographers.
Adam Hochschild’s story “The Adventures of Samuel Clemens,” in The Nation is a review of Ron Chernow’s “massive but highly readable” biography, “Mark Twain.” He also wrote “The View from Here: It’s easy to despair. But history offers a playbook for dark times” for Air Mail.
Professors Jason Spingarn-Koff and Jennifer Redfearn, joined by Career Services Director Betsy Rate, took a group of documentary students on an industry networking tour of L.A. in June. Highlights included visiting Netflix and the Hollywood Climate Summit, as well as meeting leaders of top production companies.
Following a national search, journalist and former lecturer Monica Campbell was selected as the permanent director of our California Local News Fellowship program. Monica was hired in February to coordinate the fellowship’s 70 newsrooms and in June became interim director of the program. She brings decades of experience in journalism, from the Washington Post to public radio’s “The World.”
Emeritus Professor and mentor Jon Else (director of the documentary program from 1997 to 2014) receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award at the 46th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The award was presented by alum and Advisory Board member Carrie Lozano (’05), President & CEO of ITVS. Photo courtesy of 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards.
Alumni News
David Gelles (’08), an award-winning reporter on the New York Times Climate desk, has a new book out: “Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away.” The book tells the inside story of Yvon Chouinard who in 2022, having gone from ‘dirtbag’ to billionaire, took the astonishing step of renouncing his wealth and committing all of Patagonia’s future profits to fighting the climate crisis.
David Gelles (’08)
Neenma Ebeledike (’25) and Isabella Marzban’s (’25) thesis film “Allensworth Rising: A Fight for Water” was published by LA Times Short Docs. The film follows residents who join forces with UC Berkeley Professor Ashok Gadgil to fight for clean water in their community. The UC Berkeley Journalism doc team supported the film: Documentary Program Director Jennifer Redfearn, Professor Jason Spingarn-Koff, Lecturer Nani Walker (’18), Lecturer Amy Ferraris and staff technical advisors Chris O’Dea, Rick Johnson and Zhiwei Feng (’23).
Rebecca Solnit’s (’84) latest book “No Straight Road Takes You There” is already a New York Times bestseller in paperback nonfiction. In her latest essay collection, the award-winning author explores climate change, feminism, democracy, hope, and power and its abuse.
I-Yun Chan’s (’25) deeply personal audio capstone “Surviving Suicide Loss in Palo Alto” aired on KQED’s “The Bay”, with another version on KALW. Special thanks to Professor Shereen Marisol Meraji for editing and support.
Aisha Wallace-Palomares (’25) wears a bullet-proof press vest while reporting on a protest in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. Wallace-Palomares returned to her hometown this summer to report on immigration raids targeting her community. Sasha Khokha (’04) of KQED’s “The California Report Magazine” profiled Wallace-Palomares about her incredible bilingual coverage on increased immigration enforcement in the North County area of San Diego. Listen here. (Photo courtesy of Everardo Flores)
Steven Leckart’s (’07) feature documentary “STANS” — his first feature as a director — produced by Eminem about his fans and his relationship to fame and fandom had a four-day limited theatrical release on 1500 screens in more than 48 countries. The doc premiered in August on Paramount+.
Steven Leckart (’07)
Advisory Board member Carrie Lozano (’05), President & CEO of ITVS, the publicly funded documentary company behind hundreds of titles from Oscar nominees to festival favorites, recently wrote a story in The Hollywood Reporter about how the cuts to public media are dramatically impacting the documentary film world.
Katey Rusch (’20) tapped the new public trove of internal police files to report for The San Francisco Chronicle an untold story about a discredited Oakland cop — part of the infamous “Riders” in Oakland — who later became an FBI agent and killed an associate of the Boston Marathon bombers during an interrogation.
Narcos series director filmmaker Alejandra Márquez Abella is set to produce an untitled crime thriller based on Steve Fisher’s (’14) Los Angeles Times article “How a Mennonite Farmer Became a Drug Suspect” at Amazon MGM studios. Fisher and the Los Angeles Times will executive produce. Fisher was a Post-Graduate Fellow at our Investigative Reporting Program from 2015-16.
Steve Fisher (’14)
Dan Krauss’ (’04) latest film “Bodyguard of Lies,” an exposé of government deception and lack of accountability over the war in Afghanistan had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. Emily Thomas (’18) is the documentary’s associate producer. The film is streaming on Paramount+.
Dan Krauss (’04)
Christopher “Toby” McLeod (’83), Jessica Abbe (’85) and Callie Shanafelt-Wong (’11) make up the 40-year-old Sacred Land Film Project, a Berkeley-based production company focused on covering indigenous stories. Their latest film in production features indigenous leader Corrina Gould’s landmark success on Berkeley’s Fourth Street — the biggest urban land-back victory in California history. “Lessons in Humility and Persistence” by Andrea Lampros (‘97) in California magazine chronicles the crew’s journey.
We love when our alums come back to the J-School to talk to students! Serginho Roosblad (’18), Sobhan Hassanvand (‘24), Hao Guo (’19) and Cecil Egbele (’25), interviewed by Fuwad Ahamad (’26) at the Annual International Student-Alumni Mixer in August.
Where are they now? Alum Hailey Wang (’25) is a data and graphics intern at the Los Angeles Times.
Read our most recent North Gate Update: Homecoming, Class Notes and More here.
Awards and Accolades
The Developing Your Blockbuster Investigative Story class pictured in 2025 in the newsroom of the IRP from top left: Fernando Andrade Paez, Jariel Arvin, Chelsea Long, Erika Zaro, Luiz Monticelli, Matthew Mitchell, Daniel Hennessy, Veronique Eshaya, Professor David Barstow, Julian Wray, Taylor Barton, Julia Haney, Elizabeth Santos, Marion Apio, Lili Cortes and Holly McDede. Photo: Marlena Telvick.
Our Investigative Reporting Program was named a ‘Media That Matters’ honoree by Editor & Publisher. The annual award recognizes changemakers redefining journalism’s future. “The IRP is catapulting students into careers as investigative journalists who are winning awards, holding those in authority to account and changing policies through their investigations,” the judges commented. Warm congratulations to Professor David Barstow, Managing Editor Bernice Yeung, Local News Editor Christine Schiavo and the entire team.
Guess which podcast is listed among TIME’s best 100 podcasts of all time? Of course it’s “Code Switch,” which was co-hosted by our Audio Program Director Shereen Marisol Meraji. The judges said, “the show evolved into a kind of cultural compass — never preachy, always curious — using the news of the moment to trace the roots of inequality and identity without flattening anyone’s experience.” Bravo!
Professor Jennifer LaFleur, who leads Berkeley Journalism’s data reporting track and is a former senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity, and production manager Steven Rascón (’22), won the Edward R. Murrow Award for best podcast for Reveal’s “40 Acres and a Lie.”
Serginho Roosblad (’18), a reporter on the Associated Press Global Investigations team and Marian Carrasquero (’19) were part of the AP and PBS “Frontline” teams that won first place for best News Series for “Lethal Restraint,” a three-year investigation documenting how many people in the U.S. die after police officers use restraint tactics not meant to kill.
Lauren Capps (’12), was a producer on “The Sing Sing Chronicles,” a four-part docuseries by NBC News Studios and Trilogy Films that won two Murrow Awards — one for best News Series and another for Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The series is built on two decades of original investigative reporting by Dan Slepian who had unprecedented access to one of America’s most notorious prisons. The series also won the 2025 Domestic Television Award from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights in May. The series also won a News and Doc Emmy for Best Documentary, won the Gracie Award for Best Documentary Series, and won the 2025 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. Read Marlena Telvick’s interview with her here.
Read about the Murrow Award winners here.
Alumni winners winners in the 91st National Headliner Awards from top left: Garance Burke (’04), Bill Whitaker (’78/’16), Casey Smith (’20), Katey Rusch (’20), Serginho Roosblad (’18), Marian Carrasquero (’19) and Mary Spicuzza (’04).
Our Investigative Reporting Program and seven alums were winners in the 91st National Headliner Awards, which honor the best journalism in the United States in 2024 across platforms. The Best in Show/Newspapers Award — a top honor — went to Katey Rusch (’20) and Casey Smith (’20) for the Investigative Reporting Program/San Francisco Chronicle collaboration “Right to Remain Secret.” Read about all of the winners here.
Alumni winners in the Region 2 Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association from top leftt: Lisa Pickoff-White, Tyche Hendricks, Bella Arnold, Brian Krans, Krissy Waite, Simmerdeep Kaur, Hanisha Harjani, Adam Solorzano and Grace Marion.
Two major investigations from KQED, reported by alums and one with help from six students at UC Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, have been awarded top honors in the Region 2 Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA). Read more here.
Student and alumni winners in the 2025 California Journalism Awards from top left: Alana Minkler (’26), Tanay Gokhale (’23), Holly McDede (’25), Kelsey Oliver (’25), Gisselle Medina (’24), Simmerdeep Kaur (’24), Kathleen Quinn (’24), Casey Smith (’20) and Katey Rusch (’20).
The California News Publishers Association honored dozens of Berkeley Journalism students and alums at the 2025 California Journalism Awards, presented at a ceremony in May in Los Angeles.
Katey Rusch (’20) and Casey Smith (’20) and the Investigative Reporting Program won two awards: First Place in Division 1 Excellence in Collaborations and Partnerships and Third Place in Division 1 Investigative Reporting category for “Right to Remain Secret,” published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Alana Minkler (’26) won three awards in the Division 2 category for her work at the Press Democrat: First Place for Illustration for “County in Crisis: Sonoma County’s staffing crisis”; Second Place in Youth and Education Reporting for “As more North Bay students become homeless, schools struggle to address their needs,” and Fourth Place for Breaking News for “Deadly weekend on Sonoma Coast as two sport crab boats capsize in rough waters.”
Holly McDede (’25) won Third Place in Investigative Reporting in Division 7 for her story “Benicia teacher charged with sexual acts with student was previously arrested in Napa,” in the Vallejo Sun.
Kelsey Oliver (’25) won Third Place in the Division 3 Health Reporting category for “Patients witnessed ‘erratic’ behavior’ from SLO doctor — one said he was sexually assaulted,” in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Alumni winners in the 2025 California Journalism Awards from top left: Williamena Kwapo (’23), Julietta Bisharyan (’23), B. Sakura Cannestra (’23), Susie Neilson (’19), Xueer Lu (’23), Junyao Yang (’23), Tarini Mehta (’24), Harriet Rowan (’16) and Semantha Norris (’23).
Alumni winners in the 2025 California Journalism Awards from top left: Becca Andrews (’15), Sean Greene (’14), Betty Marquez Rosales (‘20), Brittany Schell (’13), Angela Hart (‘14), Emilie Raguso (’06), Anita Chabria (’00), Karen D’Souza (‘95) and Robin Urevich (’09).
Read about all those honored here.
Nick Kusnetz and Sean Greene
Nick Kusnetz (’09) and Sean Greene (’14) are finalists in the Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. Kusnetz is a finalist for best International reporting for “Cashing Out,” an investigation into the wide-ranging environmental and human rights consequences of a little-known international arbitration system for Inside Climate News. Greene is a finalist for best personal finance and consumer reporting for “Dirty Weed” for the Los Angeles Times. In addition to the Loeb Award nomination, the series won an SDX Award from SPJ and awards from the Deadline Club/NYC Chapter of SPJ, the New York Press Club and a Citation from the Overseas Press Club.
The Loeb Awards will be held October 9 in New York City.
Alumni winners in the Los Angeles Press Club SoCal Journalism Awards from top right Andrew Lopez, Katie Licari, Semantha Raquel Norris, Erin Stone and Jill Replogle.
Jill Replogle (’10) and Erin Stone (’19) won best limited series podcast in the Los Angeles Press Club SoCal Journalism Awards for LAist Studios’ “Imperfect Paradise: Lions, Coyotes, & Bears.” Andrew Lopez (’23) of Boyle Heights Beat won for best personality profile in business and government for “The fall of José Huízar: How an Eastside hero rose to the top and how it all came crashing down”. Katie Licari (’22) won best multimedia package for “Water and Power” published in AfroLA. Semantha Raquel Norris (’22) of The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol Newspaper won best personality profile for “Youth kickboxing champion clinches another win.”
Investigative Reporting Program alums Maria Fernanda Bernal (‘23), Richard Tzul (‘23) and Felicia Alvarez (‘23) contributed reporting to the NPR/Floodlight investigation “Chevron owns this city’s news site. Many stories aren’t told” that won the A-Mark Prize for reporting on misinformation and disinformation at the awards. The story was written by Miranda Green and NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and also won the Arthur E. Rowse Award for Examining the News Media in the prestigious National Press Club Journalism Awards in July.
Maria Fernanda Bernal (‘23), Richard Tzul (‘23) and Felicia Alvarez (‘23).
Read about all the Press Club nominees here.
Brad Bailey (’17) received three New York Emmy nominations for his latest documentary, “Her Fight, His Name: The Story of Gwen Carr and Eric Garner.” Over six years, Bailey says, he walked alongside Gwen Carr, witnessing both her public activism and the private toll of carrying a movement. Jeff Weisinger (’18) and Isaac Smith (’19) also worked on the doc. Bailey was the first African American to win the Student Oscar Gold in Documentary for his Berkeley Journalism thesis film “Hale.”
Brad Bailey (’17)
Cameron Nielsen (’22) and Alicia Avila (’13) of Oregon Public Broadcasting were honored in the Northwest Regional Emmy Awards. Nielsen won an Emmy for “All Science. No Fiction.: Using Tiny Fossils to Understand Cascadia Earthquakes,” was nominated for “The Apricots” about a Portland-based indie-folk-rock band, and for his work on Avila’s Emmy nominated “The Living Legacy of Colegio César Chávez,” about the first and only independent, accredited Chicano university in the country, which also recently won a Silver Telly for best History Series. (Avila also won a Bronze Telly for “Oregon Experience”: Chicano Education in Oregon.)
Katey Rusch (’20) and Casey Smith (’20) of the Investigative Reporting Program/San Francisco Chronicle won first place for Excellence in Local/Regional Investigative Reporting for “Right to Remain Secret” at the 72nd Scripps Howard Journalism Awards.
Upcoming Events
Join us for a special Homecoming event featuring Dean Michael D. Bolden in conversation with Sara Catania (’93), president of the Solutions Journalism Network. Together, they’ll explore how solutions-focused reporting is reshaping journalism — building trust, inspiring civic engagement and connecting news more deeply to people’s lives. Friday, October 3, 3:15 pm reception, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm conversation, North Gate Hall, RSVP here. An alumni mixer will follow the event.
Learn about all of our upcoming events here.
Support our students with summer internship stipends
Last year, you helped us raise enough funds to support 30 students with stipends for summer internships — enabling every student to work in a newsroom and be paid. These funds support students and journalism. We’re doing it again and even earlier this year because we have a $10K challenge grant from a generous donor.
Every dollar matters. Visit the crowdfunding site and watch a brief video about what these internships mean to our students. And thank you!
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The Quarterly News features alumni, faculty, students, media partners and others in Berkeley Journalism’s broad community. If you’d like to follow ongoing developments in real-time, find us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, X and LinkedIn. Have alumni news or accomplishments to share? Please send it, along with a high-res headshot to journalism@berkeley.edu. Are you hiring? Please reach out to career.services@berkeley.edu. Want to learn about donating to the school? Contact stevekatz@berkeley.edu.
Thank you!
