Award-Winning Alumni Putting CJS2030 Initiatives Into Practice

For more than a century, Columbia Journalism School has prepared journalists to report with integrity and precision. Through Dean Jelani Cobb’s CJS2030 Initiatives, the J-School is expanding support for investigative reporting, nonprofit news, audience engagement and documentary storytelling.

In spring 2026, alumni were recognized by some of journalism's most prestigious organizations and awards programs for work that reflects those priorities, earning honors for reporting that serves the public and strengthens accountability journalism.

Read their honors below: 

Continued dedication to high-quality, local news coverage is the heartbeat of the J-School. Organizations recognized over 20 Columbia Journalism School alumni who put the core values of the CJS2030 Local and Nonprofit News Initiative into practice.

The Wallace House Center for Journalists and the University of Michigan announced the 2026 Livingston Awards finalists in April. The award honors the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under 35 years old. In the local reporting category, 11 Columbia Journalism School alumni were nominated, including: 

• Curtis Brodner, '24 M.S. Stabile, Oishika Neogi, '24 M.S. Stabile, and Willow Higgins, '23 M.A. Politics, for New York Focus
• Lauren Peace, ‘20 M.S. Stabile, for the Tampa Bay Times
• Jana Cholakovska, ‘24 M.S. Stabile, for NJ Advance Media
• Sammy Sussman, '23 M.S. Stabile, for The New York Times and New York Focus
• Alexa York, ‘26 M.S. Stabile, for The Toledo Blade
• Salina Arredondo, ‘23 M.S., for Public Health Watch
• Chris Gelardi, '17 M.S., for New York Focus
• Charlotte Keith, '14 M.S., for Spotlight PA
• Ethan Bauer, '19 M.S., for Deseret Magazine

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) Awards recognize excellence in the field of nonprofit news, celebrating work that strengthens newsrooms and expands access to trustworthy news. Eleven Columbia Journalism School alumni were nominated across several categories.

Among those nominated were Nevin Kallepalli, '23 M.S., for the Best Investigative Journalism Award, Small Division, for reporting on the harm caused by a police department’s social media presence for the Shasta Scout. Ted Alcorn, ‘24 Lede Program, and Illan Ireland, ‘23 M.S., were both nominated for the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism, Small Division. Alcorn spent time with a manager of New Mexico’s first competency diversion program for New Mexico In Depth, while Ireland covered Louisianans and their grassroots efforts to track pollution in their own backyards.

For their New York Focus series on conviction integrity units, “Innocence Ignored,” Ryan Kost, ‘23 M.S., Willow Higgins, ‘23 M.A. Politics, Oishika Neogi, ‘24 M.S., and Curtis Brodner, ‘24 M.S., were nominated for the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism, Medium Division. Nominated in the same category, Alex N. Gecan, ‘11 M.S., reported on the City of Berkeley’s attempts to prepare its citizens for the next wildfires.

Nominated for the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism, Large Division, Jill Barshay, ‘11 M.S., 2016-17 Spencer Fellow, reported on the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of more than 1,300 Department of Education employees. In the Breaking Barriers Award, Small Division, Ko Bragg, ‘16 M.S., was nominated for a story on the vanishing ancestral lands of Alaska’s Native communities as a result of climate change. A second story on Arizona farmworker and miner communities by Bragg and Olga Loginova, ‘19 M.A. Science, was nominated in the same category. 

At Columbia Journalism School, students complete required courses in accountability reporting and investigative techniques. They are trained to hold powerful people and institutions to account to sustain democracy. The honors below recognize alumni who are expanding public access to information and finding new ways to engage audiences through journalism.

Learn more about these principles through the CJS2030 Democracy Initiative and CJS2030 Access Initiative. 

Mariana van Zeller, ‘02 M.S., won multiple Emmy Awards for her work as host and executive producer of “Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller.” The National Geographic series explores the “global underworld” of black and informal markets. 

Lauren Harris, ‘26 M.S. Documentary, placed first in the University of Missouri’s annual Reynolds Journalism Institute Student Innovation Competition and took home the $10,000 grand prize. The 2026 competition theme focused on how to create collaborative partnerships between news organizations and social media creators. Harris created Spread, a model network to connect creators and newsrooms at live journalism events. 

Seventeen Columbia Journalism School alumni were recognized for the 2026 Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) Awards, including several graduates of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, which has trained investigative reporters at Columbia Journalism School since 2006.

Among the winners were Mukta Joshi, ‘24 M.S. Stabile, and Nate Rosenfield, ‘23 M.S. Stabile, who received the Tom Renner Award for Outstanding Crime Reporting for their contributions to a years-long series of reports on police corruption in Rankin County, Mississippi. 

Aaron Leibowitz, '18 M.S. Stabile, Susan Merriam, '22 M.S., and their colleagues at the Miami Herald and WLRN Public Radio won the State Outstanding Print/Online award for a series examining the 196 people killed by Brightline trains. Mehr Sher, '22 M.S. Stabile, and Laila Al-Arian, '06 M.S., won the International Outstanding Video award for their contributions to an Al Jazeera English documentary on the shooting of children in Gaza.

In audio reporting, Chiara Eisner, '19 M.S. Stabile, Robert Little, '98 M.S., and their colleagues at NPR won an Outstanding Audio award for an investigation into a Los Angeles-area power company's failures during the 2025 wildfires. Little, Jonathan Schienberg, ‘05 M.S., and Raney Aronson-Rath, ‘95 M.S., were also named finalists in the same category for NPR’s follow-up coverage of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. 

Other finalists included Scooty Nickerson, '20 M.S., for The Boston Globe's investigation into patient safety failures at Boston-area hospitals; Adriana L. Fernández, '17 M.S., and Mica Rosenberg, '13 Knight-Bagehot Fellow, for reporting on deportations to Guantanamo and CECOT; Linda Pattillo, '81 M.S., for an investigation into fentanyl poisonings among children; Andrew Ryan, '02 M.S., for The Boston Globe's "Snitch City" podcast series; Alene Tchekmedyian, '11 M.S., for The Los Angeles Times' wildfire coverage; and Christine Chung, '15 M.S., for The New York Times' investigation into the collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines plane.

The Oxford American, a nonprofit arts and media organization, published the winner of Columbia Journalism School’s 2025 Best M.A. Thesis Award, “Diamonds of the Earth” by Diba Mohtasham, ‘25 M.A., Arts & Culture. Mohtasham documented the emergence of a new generation of truffle growers. 

The Silurian Press Club, one of the oldest press clubs in the nation, honored Mia Anzalone, ‘26 M.S., with its annual fellowship award. The $2,000 award is given to New York-area journalism school students, each with wide-ranging reporting plans.

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting published "Treatment Interrupted," an investigative thesis by Ally Markovich, '25 M.A. Politics, examining how restrictive federal regulations surrounding the schizophrenia medication clozapine contributed to treatment interruptions, relapses and, in some cases, deaths.

The New York Times published "Debt Collectors Know They Are Reviled. They Have Bills to Pay, Too." by Kali Bomeli, '26 M.S., her thesis exploring the emotional toll and workplace challenges faced by debt collectors, highlighting the verbal abuse, threats and financial pressures they endure while helping recover overdue debts.

Plus, for the third year in a row, Spotify highlighted the latest season of Shoe Leather, an investigative podcast produced and published by Professor Joanne Faryon’s class that goes in search of New York City’s forgotten stories, on its website. This season, students traced the history of the Weather Underground, a group of revolutionaries who used violence to “bring the war home” in the 1970s. 

For more information on CJS2030, visit: journalism.columbia.edu/CJS2030