A team of leading investigative reporters, Columbia University faculty, postgraduate fellows, graduate students and others who produce deep investigations into urgent matters of public interest, without respect to specific beats. CJI tackles domestic investigations, while international investigations are conducted by its global branch, the Cross-Borders Data Project.
Funding is provided by the Investigative Reporting Resource and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Additional reporting work on immigration is conducted through the Global Migration Project.
Director Kristen Lombardi
Kristen Lombardi heads Columbia Journalism Investigations, where she has the privilege of helping produce great investigative stories while training the next generation of investigative reporters. Under her editorial leadership, CJI fellows have dug into worker heat deaths, neglect of those living in climate disaster zones, the mental-health toll of climate-fueled disasters and online-dating companies’ response to sexual assaults, and CJI investigations have won accolades from the Investigative Reporters and Editors, the South Carolina Press Association, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Peabody Awards and more.
Before joining the J-School in August 2018, Kristen spent 11 years as an investigative reporter at the nonprofit newsroom the Center for Public Integrity, covering environmental and social justice issues. She has been a journalist for 26 years and has received numerous national and regional awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Dart Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service. In 2013, President Barack Obama signed a law addressing problems exposed by her 2009-10 CPI investigation, “Sexual Assault on Campus.” She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and an Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and has a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University. She has taught investigative skills classes at Columbia and serves as a master’s adviser for students in the Stabile investigative reporting program.
Current Fellows
Gabriela Alcalde, '22 M.S. Stabile
Gabriela Alcalde is a Colombian-Cuban-American journalist and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. She graduated from Columbia Journalism School’s Stabile investigative-reporting program in 2022. Prior to Columbia, she produced documentaries for A&E Films, Netflix, PBS and HBO — including The Forever Prisoner, which won the 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Documentary.
Jake Kincaid, '20 MS Stabile
Jake Kincaid is a 2020 graduate of the Stabile Investigative program at Columbia Journalism school. He was awarded an Overseas Press Club Fellowship with Reuters and has reported from Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. His work has appeared in the Miami Herald, USA Today, Univision and OZY.
Patricia Martínez Sastre, '22 M.S. Data
Patricia Martínez Sastre worked as the sub-Saharan Africa correspondent for Agencia EFE, the major Spanish-language news wire, until June 2021. Based in Nairobi, she covered the first peaceful transfer of power in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, investigated the social and economic impact of ocean warming on Tanzanian seaweed farmers and the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious La Caixa Foundation scholarship to attend the M.S. data journalism program at Columbia Journalism School, from which she graduated in August 2022. Currently, she combines data, photography and visualizations to keep telling human stories.
Cameron Oakes, '22 M.S. Stabile
Cameron Oakes is a graduate of the Toni Stabile investigative-reporting program at Columbia Journalism School. She covers the criminal justice system and military and veterans affairs, and is passionate about improving public records access. Her work has appeared in NBC News, MSNBC, The Choice on Peacock, Haaretz English, Latin America News Dispatch and others.
Recent Stories
Climate Relocation: Trapped in Harm’s Way as Disasters Mount - The Center for Public Integrity
Leaving the Island: The Messy, Contentious Reality of Climate Relocation- Type Investigations
Applying to the Fellowship
The Columbia Journalism Investigations postgraduate fellowship is an exclusive opportunity open only to recent M.A. and M.S. graduates of the Columbia Journalism School. Those interested in applying should contact Career Services for application instructions and deadlines.