Alums and faculty honored in the National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Awards

The National Association of Black Journalists celebrated Berkeley Journalism Professor Lisa Armstrong and alums Corey Antonio Rose (’23) and Jason Samuels (’95) at the organization’s 2024 convention in Chicago.

Corey Antonio Rose

The Salute to Excellence Awards — the only journalism competition in the United States to honor exemplary coverage of the African diaspora and Black issues exclusively — highlight the work of media organizations and individuals in print, broadcast and online journalism, as well as marketing and communications.

Rose (’23) was awarded the Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year Award. The award recognizes a Black journalist with five or fewer years of experience in the industry and displays a commitment to NABJ’s goal of outstanding achievement by Black journalists and providing balanced coverage of the Black community and society at large.

Rose is a producer for NPR’s “It’s Been A Minute,” where his work explores the intersections of public health, policy and culture. His work has been featured in outlets such as NPR, Netflix, Into Magazine, KQED and PBS. He is a Vice-Chair for NABJ’s LGBTQ+ Task Force.

Professor Armstrong’s story was part of a Guardian US series called “The Great Fertility Divide,” which won for best single topic series in a magazine. Armstrong’s story — “Black women are more likely to experience infertility than white women. They’re less likely to get help, too” — went far beyond troubling statistics to explore how Black women contend with discriminatory reproductive care and are saddled with the trope of hyper-fertility and face a dearth of Black sperm donors.

Professor Lisa Armstrong and Corey Antonio Rose.

She also documented the history of dominance over Black women’s bodies dating back to chattel slavery.

Armstrong also served on a panel at the conference, Investigative Reporting at the Crossroads: Uncovering Black and Queer stories, with her former student Corey Antonio Rose.

Jason Samuels (’95), a professor of journalism at NYU and a news and documentary executive producer, won an NABJ Salute to Excellence Award for best network public affairs segment on television — “Unnecessary Amputations.” The segment, reported by Wesley Lowery, was featured in the original primetime newsmagazine series Samuels created called “America in Black,” a co-production of Black Entertainment Television and CBS News.

The groundbreaking news series features investigative reports, human interest stories and profiles reported by an award-winning team of anchors and correspondents, including Gayle King, Jerica Duncan, Ed Gordon, Maurice DuBois, Michelle Miller, Soledad O’Brien and others. Alums Durrell Dawson (’06) and Justin Pye (’14) were part of the “America in Black” production team.

Alvin Patrick, executive producer of the Race and Culture Unit at CBS News and Jason Samuels on the red carpet at the NABJ Awards.

Watch a video of the ceremony here.

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Meanwhile at the NABJ Conference, Admissions Director Nelly Provencal-Dayle, Ekene “E” Okobi, cohort manager of our California Local News Fellows, and Cecil Egbele (’25) hosted a career booth at the conference and reconnected with alums at various events.

Don Blount, Central Valley Executive Editor at McClatchy and California Local News Fellowship program Advisory Board member, Nelly Provencal-Dayle, Jaylin Anderson (’19), Corey Antonio Rose (’23) and Cecil Egbele (’25).

Cecil Egbele (‘25), Chicago Sun-Times Executive Editor Jennifer Kho (’03), Ekene “E” Okobi, Don Blount, Central Valley Executive Editor at McClatchy and California Local News Fellowship program Advisory Board member, and Nelly Provencal-Dayle.

Cecil Egbele (’25) at the Berkeley Journalism booth.