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Fund Announces New Board Members

(Washington DC) – The Fund for Investigative Journalism announced today that two distinguished leaders in the journalism profession have been elected to its board of directors.

The new board members are:

  • Marcia Bullard, former President and Chief Executive Officer of USA WEEKEND, current chair of America’s Charities.
  • Milton Coleman, retired Senior Editor of the Washington Post, past president of the American Society of News Editors and of the Inter-American Press Association.

In 1982, Bullard was one of the founding editors of USA TODAY. She served as Editor, then for 14 years as President and CEO of USA WEEKEND, which is distributed in more than 700 newspapers. In 1992 while leading the magazine, Bullard founded the Make A Difference Day, which has grown to engage more than three million Americans in volunteer service on the fourth Saturday of October. She was honored with the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2005. Bullard started her reporting career at age 17, and now serves on the advisory board of the Southern Illinois University School of Journalism, and on the boards of three nonprofits, including America’s Charities, a national organization that promotes and facilitates workplace giving. Bullard is currently a consultant based in Washington DC.

Coleman was a reporter and editor for the Washington Post for more than three decades, hired in 1976 to cover local government and politics, promoted to City Editor in 1980, then joined the national staff as a reporter, and later served as Assistant Managing Editor for Metropolitan News and Deputy Managing Editor. Coleman has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism. In 2010, Coleman was elected president of the American Society of News Editors – the nation’s top membership organization for newspaper editors and other news media leaders. In 2011, he was elected president of the Inter-American Press Association, which defends press freedom and the rights of journalists in North and South America.

The board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism also elected Ricardo Sandoval-Palos as its president.  Sandoval-Palos is a DC-based writer and consultant, working most recently with Human Rights Watch and the Center for Public Integrity. From 1997 to 2006, Sandoval-Palos was a Latin American correspondent for the Dallas Morning News and the San Jose Mercury News. His investigative reporting has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, the Inter-American Press Association, the Loeb Awards for business journalism, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Sandoval-Palos replaces outgoing president Brant Houston, who had served as president for four years. Houston, the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois, will continue to serve the Fund for Investigative Journalism as a member of the Advisory Board.

For more than forty years the Fund has paid reporting expenses of reporters who have the ideas, sources, and know-how to produce groundbreaking investigative journalism but lack the resources to complete their projects.

The Fund receives support from foundations and from individuals. Its foundation supporters are The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, The Park Foundation, The Reva & David Logan Foundation, The Nicholas B. Ottaway Foundation, The Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, The Gannett Foundation, The Herb Block Foundation, The Green Park Foundation, and The Nara Fund.

Pro bono legal services are provided by Dykema Gossett PLLC. Pro bono business advisory services are provided by Leigh Riddick, Associate Professor of Finance at The American University’s Kogod School of Business.