Important Investigative Reporting Program Announcement: The departure of Marlena Telvick

September 9, 2011

September 12, 2011

Dear friends of the IRP,

For a decade Marlena Telvick has been a key part of the Investigative Reporting Program at the Graduate School of Journalism. Her tireless dedication and good humor have been critical to making the program a success. Over the years it has grown from one seminar a week to an institution that includes our offices at 2481 Hearst, our postgraduate fellows and the annual Logan Symposium. Marlena has managed all of them while working with me on myriad stories, sharing in many of journalism’s highest honors.

But Marlena’s contribution goes beyond her job as Deputy Director of the program. She has been indispensable in helping to create a diverse funding base that has allowed the IRP to expand year by year, while most of the University has been beset by budget cuts.

This past spring, with another success, the much-acclaimed 2011 Logan Symposium under her belt, Marlena expressed her desire to take some time off and find new challenges. We agreed that she would leave her job as Deputy Director this fall. And sadly the date set, September 23, is rapidly approaching.

Fortunately, Marlena has graciously agreed to come back and help maintain the traditions of the program by making next year’s Symposium another success, and along the way be available to work with those who we have chosen to replace her.

Because Marlena has done so much of the administrative, development and editorial work, we realized it would take at least two people to replace her. So over the summer we found and hired Alisha Diego Klatt, as our new Administrative Director, and Tim McGirk, as our Managing Editor.

Ms. Klatt is familiar to many at the Journalism School because of her work over the years with the Knight Digital Media Center. She also brings a keen understanding of the way the university works along with the often-complex world of foundations.

Tim McGirk has been working with the IRP over the last year on his own stories and advising on multiple issues. A thirty-year veteran foreign correspondent and bureau chief for Time magazine, Tim’s equanimity is legendary. He has already made a key difference helping to shape the work of our graduate students and post-graduate fellows.

Hiring two people to fill one person’s job requires financial resources and we want to thank our many donors. The IRP is almost entirely financed by private donations.  But this year with the help of the university, we hope to secure our current home, which is leased, and make it permanent.  Efforts to do so are ongoing. Later this year, we expect that we will be inviting you to celebrate our new permanent home, and to thank Marlena for her indispensable role in making this institution thrive.

Regards,

 

Lowell Bergman
Logan Professor
Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley

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