Bill Marimow elected President, Cheryl W. Thompson and Anu Narayanswamy elected Vice Presidents; five new Board members elected
WASHINGTON, DC, January 13, 2022 – The Fund for Investigative Journalism, an organization committed to sustaining in-depth reporting, has elected new officers and five new board members.
Bill Marimow, a two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient, was elected board President. He is the former Editor in Chief of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Editor in Chief of the Baltimore Sun and Vice President of News for National Public Radio (NPR).
Cheryl W. Thompson and Anu Narayanswamy were re-elected Vice Presidents. Thompson is an investigative correspondent and Senior Editor of Station Investigations at NPR. Narayanswamy is a data reporter for the Washington Post’s national political enterprise and accountability team. Alan Berlow was re-elected Treasurer. Berlow, who was a foreign correspondent at NPR, is a freelance reporter and author.
The Fund, which was founded in 1969, provides grants directly to journalists for the expenses of investigations and also provides editorial mentorship, legal support and training to reporters who receive grants. The Fund’s board, comprised entirely of journalists, reviews and votes on every grant proposal. Over the last two years, the Fund has increased its grantmaking by more than 65%.
Five new members were elected to the Board of Directors. They are:
- James B. Steele, two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient and former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Time Editor-at-Large and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor
- Amy Pyle, National Investigations Editor at USA Today and former Editor in Chief of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting
- Valeria Fernandez, Managing Editor of palabra, 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow and Co-producer of Comadres al Aire
- Dianna Hunt, Senior Editor at Indian Country Today and former Metro Editor at the Houston Chronicle
- Ellen Weiss, Vice President and Bureau Chief, E.W. Scripps Washington Bureau, and former Vice President of News for NPR
Other board members who were elected in previous years and continue to serve are:
- Luis Botello, Deputy Vice President of the International Center for Journalists and former reporter, host and producer at Televisora Nacional
- Lottie Joiner, former Editor in Chief of the Crisis Magazine
- Joe Stephens, Director of Princeton’s journalism program and former investigative reporter at the Washington Post
Of the Fund’s 12-member Board of Directors, six are journalists of color and seven are women. Half of the Board is also now based outside of the Washington, DC, area, with members in California, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Tennessee.
“At a time when in-depth reporting of local news is under siege, the Fund for Investigative Journalism is providing critical support for public-service journalism across the country. With a board of remarkably experienced and diverse journalists, we’re committed to build on the momentum we’ve achieved in recent years,” Marimow said.
The Board of Directors thanked Mark Greenblatt, the immediate past president whose service on the board ended in December because of term limits. Greenblatt and two other departing board members, Diana Schemo and Susanne Reber, were elected to the Fund’s Advisory Board to continue providing strategic counsel.
For more on the Fund’s Board of Directors, go to: http://fij.org/board-members/, and for more on the Fund’s Advisory Board, go to: http://fij.org/advisory-members/.
To see stories published with grants and other support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism go to: https://fij.org/grantees-stories/. For highlights of the impact stories published with grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism have had, go to: http://fij.org/impact/.
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For more information, contact Eric Ferrero, Executive Director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, at [email protected].