About

The stories here were reported, written and produced by Northwestern University graduate journalism students in the Washington program of the Medill School. Most also were published or broadcast by media organizations across the country served by Medill Washington’s unique news service, which focuses on how public policy affects people’s lives. Medill Washington also specializes in enterprise reporting, multimedia and online journalism and on accountability, using the power of the computer and the wellspring of the database to uncover misbehavior by people in power.

The Washington program’s reporting has been recognized professionally by numerous awards, including prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Press Foundation and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Medill Washington students are fully credentialed working journalists getting real-world experience, a hallmark of the Medill School. Combined with their training at Medill’s Evanston campus and in Medill’s Chicago newsroom , the Washington experience has helped launch hundreds of successful careers in print, online and video journalism.

Reaching Medill Washington

You may reach the Medill Washington Program by calling the newsroom at 202.347.8700 or by e-mailing the office manager, Wafaa Hussein, at w-hussein@northwestern.edu

Medill
1325 G Street NW, Suite 730
Washington, DC, 20005
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About the faculty

A faculty of professionals with broad experience in newspapers, broadcast and online news supervises the work. They also write about how the craft of reporting is evolving with the advent of digital media tools.

Tom Diemer

Tom Diemer has been an adjunct lecturer at Medill’s Washington program since 2006. He is a former bureau chief and Washington columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and also worked as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press and PoliticsDaily.com. He is an author; his most recent book, “Fighting the Unbeatable Foe,” a biography of Senator Howard Metzenbaum, was published by Kent State University Press. Diemer is working on a political biography of legendary Ohio governor James A. Rhodes. He has also written forRolling Stone, Campaigns & Elections, and contributed to newspaper food sections.

Contact: 202.661.0105 or t-diemer@northwestern.edu

Cheryl Jackson

Cheryl Jackson started her journalism career as a newspaper diversity columnist with her first job in the news business as a features reporter and diversity columnist for The Columbus Republic. Her column, “It Takes All Kinds,” which she wrote for more than a decade, covered cross cultural issues including poverty and inequality.

She later pursued interest in broadcast journalism and worked as a features reporter for WTIU Radio while pursing graduate studies in the discipline at Indiana University. Her first on-camera job was with WSBT and the South Bend Tribune as a convergence reporter. She also has worked as a general assignment reporter at WRTV- Indianapolis. At Indiana University/Purdue University Cheryl taught newspaper reporting and later she became a visiting, full-time broadcast news professor at Indiana University, Bloomington.

In addition to teaching broadcast students at Medill, Cheryl is a freelance correspondent for CNN, a contributor to Racing Toward Diversity Magazine and is doing a series of diversity projects for PBS. She is a member of the National Press Club and the Chicago Chapter of the National Assocication of Black Journalists.

Contact: 202.661.0103 or cheryl-jackson@northwestern.edu

Josh Meyer

Josh Meyer spent 20 years with the Los Angeles Times before joining Medill’s new initiative in January.

He was an investigative reporter and national security writer, covering a wide range of issues, including government, politics and law enforcement. Since 2000, he focused on terrorism and related intelligence, law enforcement and national security issues while traveling extensively to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Persian Gulf.

Most recently, Josh has written extensively about the Obama Justice Department, global organized crime, WMDs and trafficking in drugs and humans and contributed to the Times’ prize-winning “Mexico Under Siege’’ series on Mexican drug cartels and the government response to them.

During his two decades at the Times he shared two staff Pulitzer Prizes. He also was recognized four times by the Southern California Press Association for his investigative reporting.

He also was one of several L.A. Time reporters to win more than a dozen awards for a 2002 series entitled “Inside Al Qaeda,” including the Overseas Press Club’s Hal Boyle international reporting award.

Contact: 202.661.0106 or josh@northwestern.edu

Ellen Shearer

Ellen Shearer is the William F. Thomas Professor at Medill and Washington director and bureau chief. She also is co-director of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative. She led the “Powertrips” investigative projects in 2004 and 2006, in which Medill DC reporters created databases of privately sponsored congressional travel as part of a series of investigative stories. The project won an Investigative Reporters and Editors award. She and her students followed up a few years later with “Pentagon Travel,” a similar investigation of privately sponsored Defense Department travel. She was co-director of the 2006 News21 project in which 10 Medill fellows investigated the federal government and privacy in the post-9/11 world.

She is co-author of the book “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows,” has written chapters in five other books and is a regular contributor to “The American Editor” magazine.

Ellen is president of the Washington Press Club Foundation and has coordinated judging for the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual awards competition for more than 10 years.

Before joining the Medill faculty, she was a senior editor at New York Newsday, a consulting editor at Newhouse News Service, marketing executive at Reuters, and bureau chief and reporter for United Press International.

Contact: 202.661.0102 or shearer@northwestern.edu

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