Challenges in Feeding the Planet
By Chris Adams In an age of abundance and plenty, people still go hungry. Maybe it doesn’t have to be so. That was the message from Arlene Mitchell, executive director of the Global Child Nutrition Foundation, which works on hunger issues worldwide. In a session with National Press Foundation fellows, Mitchell laid out the promises and pitfalls in attempts to…
Mental Health Reporting Award Goes to BuzzFeed News
Rosalind Adams of BuzzFeed News is the winner of the 2016 Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting. Judges for the award, which is sponsored by the National Press Foundation, selected Adams for a painstakingly-reported investigation of private psychiatric hospitals titled “Intake.” The judges said: “Adams’ dogged reporting showed that a major for-profit company, which runs 200 psychiatric hospitals,…
How Farmers Help Feed the Global Population
By Chris Adams For Bob Young, the advantages of big agriculture are important, and self-evident, by this fact: Even as the global population boomed, the number of people going to bed hungry dropped. Citing a 2015 report on global food insecurity from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Young said the public hasn’t really appreciated how technological…
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NPF Names 35 Journalists for 2026 Local Business Journalism Fellowship
The National Press Foundation has selected 35 journalists from across the country to participate in the 2026 Local Business Journalism Fellowship. Fellows will travel to Washington, D.C., April 26-29, and have exclusive briefings with economists, small business owners and other experts. This four-day training will give the local reporters the opportunity to dive into the business infrastructure across America today…
Sarah Wells
Sarah Wells is the Founder of Sarah Wells Bags and a small business owner based in Fairfax, Virginia. She launched the company in 2013 after her own experience as a new mother navigating the realities of pumping at work revealed a broader gap in how workplaces support parents. What began as a living-room startup has grown into an internationally recognized…
Journalist Safety Guides: Physical, Digital, Legal Resources
The arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are just the latest infringement on journalists doing their jobs. Journalists across the country have faced physical, digital and legal attacks and threats. Journalism and First Amendment supporters are providing resources to help independent journalists and newsrooms stand up to intimidation tactics to keep reporting truth and facts. The National Press Foundation…
Music Journalism is ‘About Race, Class, Politics, Identity and Labor’
To Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, music isn't background noise. Music is evidence — of history, of power, of migration, of survival. As a reporter for NPR Music, Gomez Sarmiento has built a body of work that listens closely to how songs carry identity, politics and lived experience, especially for communities long pushed to the margins of mainstream cultural coverage. Those instincts…
Visual Journalism Tips and Tools
In a media landscape with seemingly endless formats to choose from, the creative use of visuals can give journalists an edge. That was the message shared by Javier Zarracina, the head of graphics at The Washington Post, and Teresa Lo, a social media visuals producer at The Guardian, during their session with the National Press Foundation Widening the Pipeline fellows. Zarracina…
Vox Publisher and EIC Swati Sharma Shares Leadership Secrets
Swati Sharma did not set out to lead a major media organization. But her lived experience, commitment to honing her craft and her authentic identity steered her along that path. Now, as editor in chief and publisher of the general news interest site Vox, Sharma told 2025 National Press Foundation Widening the Pipeline fellows that leadership doesn’t need to be…
Rare Disease Funding Called ‘Modern-Day Civil Rights Issue’
The treatment of rare diseases has driven innovation beyond the lab – creative new funding models are advancing research and cures. Because patient populations are small, the traditional health care business model often does not support investment in rare disease therapies. In response, advocates, families and investors are developing alternative approaches — from crowdfunding to venture philanthropy — to move…
The Cost of Bearing Witness: Mental Health, Trauma, and the Weight Journalists Carry
If there’s one thing Lori Montenegro knows for sure, it’s that for many journalists of color, professional distance is often a luxury. As Washington bureau chief for Telemundo, she oversees coverage of Trump administration immigration policies sweeping through American communities and witnesses the mounting mental health toll on her journalist colleagues. “When you have to interview them, you have to…
AP’s Saeed Ahmed On Embracing Identity In New Media
The career path that led Saeed Ahmed to his current role as VP of news for digital platforms with the Associated Press is stellar, marked by stints at other major media companies like NPR, BBC and CNN. What’s more impressive is his clarity about how culture and identity have enriched his life and career. When Ahmed spoke during the 2025…
Covering Congress a ‘Wild Ride’ for Reporters
In just more than five years on the beat, Nicholas Wu's congressional reporting career already has spanned a crucible of American history. Presidential impeachments. An insurrection. A deadly pandemic. It has been a gauntlet that has tested the resilience of a democracy and the endurance of journalists covering a relentless news cycle. "I like to say that covering Congress these…
How AI Is Transforming Rare Disease Research
For people living with rare diseases worldwide, the intersection of scientific research and artificial intelligence holds extraordinary opportunities to advance diagnostics and treatments for rare disorders. AI can also unearth vital information that helps families provide better care. Those were the messages shared with NPF Rare Disease Reporting fellows by Vanessa Almendro-Navarro, vice president and head of science and technology…
‘Living Rare’ and ‘Rare Barometer’ Show Power in Numbers
For people living with rare disease and their families, information truly is power. The struggle to identify complex illnesses, and the challenge of finding effective treatments, requires constant knowledge-seeking. And quantitative information about that journey can also yield better policies for those dealing with extraordinary medical challenges. NPF Rare Disease Reporting fellows heard from researchers who lead two projects designed…
Rare Disease Families Need Screening, Genetic Counseling, Advocates Say
For parents, the day their child is diagnosed with a rare disease becomes a landmark – the moment life changes irrevocably. But the ability to understand what’s happening at a genetic level can help them brace for the future and provide the best possible care. That’s why many consider access to genetic screening and counseling before and after birth to…
Rare Disease Treatment Requires AI, Patient Participation
Collaborative research, assisted by artificial intelligence and an increased reliance on patient participation is essential to identifying and combating rare diseases that afflict millions of people around the world, a prominent patient advocate told the National Press Foundation's 2025 Rare Disease Reporting Fellowship. The urgent work faces "grand challenges" during the next decade, including the need for artificial intelligence "models…
Tom Bowman Transcript — Dec. 5, 2025
Tom Bowman Transcript — Dec. 5, 2025 Kevin Johnson/NPF (00:00:00): I can't thank Tom Bowman enough for coming to us on short notice. His notice was last night, and he's covering a beat as a couple of your colleagues here are covering. That is right now one of the most demanding or probably the most demanding beat in dc. And…
How a Journalist Revealed Failures in India’s Rare Disease Plan
When health researcher and journalist Rupsa Chakraborty began a six-month investigation into India’s rare disease funding policy, she knew there was a lot at stake. “Patients were going to the centers begging the doctors to release the fund for the treatment of their children who are dying in front of their eyes," Chakraborty told the more than 60 journalists convened…
Capturing the Mental Health Toll of Rare Diseases
When journalist Mercy Chelang’at received a tip from a Nairobi hospital communications staffer about a family enduring a profound rare disease battle, she knew it could not be a run-of-the-mill health story. She learned that retired veterinarian Philip Langat had lost five relatives to motor neuron disease, a progressive group of disorders that damage the nerve cells in the brain and…
From Son’s Medulloblastoma, a Worldwide Initiative Was Born
In the rare disease realm, the term “diagnostic odyssey” refers to the long, difficult process required to confirm a patient’s illness. Families must then endure the even more excruciating path to find an effective treatment. For Brazilian businessman Fernando Goldzstein, that odyssey began on Nov. 7, 2015. “We received this news that our son was diagnosed with a brain tumor,…
Sarita Edwards Transcript — Nov. 18, 2025
Sarita Edwards Transcript — Nov. 18, 2025 Rachel Jones/NPF (00:00): For session three of day three, we're joined by a woman whose journey towards advocacy and leadership in the rare disease realm began from the moment her son Elijah was diagnosed with Trisomy 18. It's a genetic condition that is caused by having an extra copy of chromosome and it…
Ida Mirković Knaus and Yamina Hsaini Transcript — Nov. 20, 2025
Ida Mirković Knaus and Yamina Hsaini Transcript — Nov. 20, 2025 Rachel Jones/NPF (00:00:02): For the first session of day four, we'll hear two powerful voices that will amplify the role of youth advocacy in the rare disease realm. First, Yamina Hsaini joins us from Paris, France. She is a 26-year-old patient advocate and content creator who has been living…
From Agony to Advocacy: Victoria Gray’s Post-CRISPR Journey
From a hotel room in in Tuscany, Italy, Victoria Gray joined the NPF Rare Diseases Reporting Fellowship on Nov. 17 to breathe life into the miraculous potential that scientific innovation holds for rare disease patients. Until about six years ago, Gray’s story was shadowed by the excruciating pain of sickle cell disease. “My life consisted of me going from the…
Connecting Biotech’s Promise with Real Progress in the Rare Disease Realm
When an infant named K.J. Muldoon received a successful gene-editing therapy performed by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers earlier this year, media coverage of that biotechnological landmark flooded the zone of health and science reporting. It also helped raise the profile of rare genetic diseases that affect tens of millions of people around the world. Baby K.J.'s miraculous story, paired…
Victoria Gray and Bijal Trivedi Transcript — Nov. 17, 2025
Victoria Gray and Bijal Trivedi Transcript — Nov. 17, 2025 Rachel Jones/NPF (00:00:00): For our next session, we'll continue the theme of Reimagined Futures for people living with rare disease. One of our next speakers embodies the incredible promise that technological advances are creating in the rare disease realm. After a lifetime of agonizing episodes due to sickle cell disease…
Dr. Mona Amin
Dr. Mona Amin is a Board-Certified Pediatrician, IBCLC, and mom of two. She’s the founder of PedsDocTalk, a global platform of over 1.5 million people offering evidence-based guidance and relatable insights on child health, development, and parenting. Featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, NPR, Good Morning America, Parents.com, and ABC News, Dr. Mona is known for helping parents…
A Primer for Business Journalists, From Bookkeeping to Deciphering Financial Statements
Good business journalism begins with understanding the basics, from fundamental accounting principles to interpreting companies' earning calls and financial statements. Paul Fischer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, took reporters behind the press releases for a primer on making sense of the numbers at the core of business operations. Some outtakes from Fischer's visit with…
How to Track Government Data Removal, Website Changes
As the Trump administration faces criticism for demolishing the East Wing of the White House, the whitehouse.gov website was updated to highlight Democratic presidential scandals, both factual and fake. But not all changes to government websites are as easily spotted as this. The Sunlight Research Center, a non-partisan source of expertise for local news organizations, can help track websites, elusive…
Government Shutdown Layoffs ‘Illegal,’ Says Former OMB Official
Even when the government grinds to a halt, there are laws governing the dysfunction. Few know the rules better than Sam Berger, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and a former senior official at the Office of Management and Budget. From limits on executive authority to government operations that can and cannot continue, Berger shared…
Sam Berger Transcript — Oct. 3, 2025
Sam Berger Transcript — Oct. 3, 2025 Kevin Johnson/NPF (00:00:01): So we're in the midst of another shutdown, obviously, and how we got here is always a messy political story, but there are actual laws that limit what government officials can and cannot do in a situation like this. For restoration, Sam Berger is here to offer an important perimeter.…
Felix Contreras Transcript — Oct. 6, 2025
Felix Contreras Transcript — Oct. 6, 2025 Rachel Jones/NPF (00:00): Procession two of the October, 2025 widening the pipeline Virtual training. We'll hear from the ultimate man behind the music. Felix Contreras is co-creator and co-host of alt latino n P's, pioneering radio show and podcasts celebrating Latin music and culture since 2010. Felix also programs music from the Latin…
Policy Analysis for Journalists
From taxes to social security, labor, health care, education and the environment — Washington is awash in government policy. But what is good policy? And how should we be evaluating these plans as they impact local communities? Day Manoli, an associate professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, told the National Press Foundation's Federal Action, Local…
National Guard Deployments: Why Chicago, Portland Aren’t Minneapolis
In the hours after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officers, then-police chief Medaria Arradondo was forced to make a difficult decision: to request the assistance of the National Guard to secure the city as riots turned deadly. "We had suffered unprecedented unrest like we had never seen in the history of our state ... and I no longer…
Elizabeth Clemons and Anna Massoglia Transcript — Oct. 8, 2025
Elizabeth Clemons and Anna Massoglia Transcript — Oct. 8, 2025 Kevin Johnson/NPF (00:00:00): Many of your applications to this fellowship underscored a troubling reality in our industry that resources are rapidly dwindling and that decades of expertise is walking out the door. And it's why I called on the Sunlight Research Center. This nonpartisan, talented group of experts helps equip…
As U.S. Limits Press Access, Strong Reporter-Source Networks Key
Deep sourcing and authoritative reporting have never been more important, as the federal government moves to limit journalists' access to key institutions, former top press secretaries told the National Press Foundation's Federal Action, Local Impact Journalism Fellowship. Mike McCurry, who served as President Clinton's spokesperson, and David Lapan, who oversaw press operations at the Department of Homeland Security during the…
Know Your First Amendment Rights Before the Assignment
Whether it is a citizens' protest, immigration raid or police action in public spaces, the First Amendment offers strong protections for journalists' access to potential news events. But there are some exceptions that reporters, photographers and videographers should understand before they hit the street. In a wide-ranging discussion focusing on press protections, Stephen Solomon, who teaches First Amendment law at…
Day Manoli Transcript — Oct. 7, 2025
Day Manoli Transcript — Oct. 7, 2025 Kevin Johnson/NPF (00:00:00): Our first session is on policy and what makes good policy from taxes to social security, workforce development, healthcare education, the environment. Washington, as many of you know, is a wash in federal policy. But what is good policy and how should we be evaluating measures as they impact local…
