Marlena Telvick
Marlena Telvick is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work, as a reporter and associate/field producer, has appeared in The New York Times, numerous documentaries for PBS FRONTLINE, the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, PBS “NewsHour”, the Center for Investigative Reporting, ProPublica and the American Journalism Review.
Her work has been honored with two Alfred I. duPont Silver Baton awards, an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, the National Press Club Consumer Journalism Award for Television, a Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism, a Mirror Award from Syracuse University, the National Press Club’s Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism, and an IRE Online Award.
She collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lowell Bergman on investigations for print and television for nearly a decade (2001-2010). Early on, she began assisting in Bergman’s investigative reporting seminars at the J-School, legendary for the steady stream of sitting judges, prosecutors, attorneys, private investigators and current and former government officials who frequented classes. This led to her managing teams of student reporters to produce extensive award-winning companion websites.
From 2003-2008 , Telvick managed teams to produce stories for PBS FRONTLINE collaborations with The New York Times, and contributed reporting to major projects for PBS FRONTLINE, The New York Times, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica.
From 2006-2011, she served as the Investigative Reporting Program’s first deputy director, helping Lowell Bergman build the IRP into a specialized graduate-level training program and non-profit newsgathering operation that soon became a model for university-media partnerships around the country. She also ran its annual post-graduate fellowship program.
From 2007-2013, Telvick also produced the Logan Symposium in Investigative Reporting, an annual by invitation only event that brings together a veritable “who’s who” of top journalists to address the critical issues confronting this specialized field. In addition to cultivating partners/sponsors, she played a critical role in retaining top editors and producers at the New York Times, “60 Minutes,” and PBS FRONTLINE, to Assistant Directors of the FBI, to Wikileaks’ Julian Assange to Hollywood producers including Michael Mann to law enforcement officers to whistleblowers to speak at these historic events.
Read her mentor Lowell Bergman’s memo about her departure from the Investigative Reporting Program here.
In 2013, she was recruited to run advancement of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism which included all facets of institutional advancement including producing special projects/major events/podcasts, serving as web and social media editor/curator/producer, external communications, fundraising, assigning/editing student stories, coordinating student photographers/shooters and fielding media requests/broll shoots. Celebrating the achievements of students, alumni and faculty was an integral part of this role and deeply rewarding.
In 2017, she was instrumental in the formation and selection of an advisory board at the school that includes some of the country’s top media professionals, innovators, educators and thought leaders, from the head of The New York Times to a top correspondent from “60 Minutes” to one of the most respected female documentary producers in the country. In 2020, she was the digital editor for the Graduate School of Journalism’s Chronicling COVID-19 project with The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Cal Matters, FRONTLINE, Rolling Stone and Aristegui Noticias in Mexico.
In 2022, she transitioned off the advancement team to focus on the editorial aspects of her role, including serving as senior web and social media editor and in portrait and event photography.
REPORTING INTERESTS
Documentary filmmaking, Investigative reportingMEDIA PLATFORMS
Documentary, Investigative journalism