Ohio University announces 2020 Kiplinger Fellows

Twenty-two journalists representing 10 nations will make up the 2020 class of Kiplinger Fellows in Public Affairs Journalism when they visit the Ohio University campus in late April for a week of intense digital media training. 

The Fellows were selected from a pool of hundreds based on journalism experience, their body of work, desire to improve their digital media skills and willingness to share the knowledge with colleagues.

The journalists from the U.S. hail from Portland, Tulsa, Miami, Chicago, San Antonio, Biloxi, and Washington, D.C., as well as Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton, Ohio.

Besides 12 selected from the United States, 10 journalists representing Canada, Cuba, Costa Rica, England, Germany, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Nigeria and South Africa were chosen.  

“Once again we are proud to announce an outstanding group from around the world who will be this year's fellows,” Kiplinger Executive Director Kevin Z. Smith said. “The value of our fellowship in digital media stretches to the four corners of the globe, and we are delighted to have such talented and accomplished reporters, editors, producers and managers in our fellowship learning ways to improve journalism.” 

The fellows will be on OHIO’s campus at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism April 19-24 and will be recognized at the school’s year-end banquet. In addition to the professional training schedule, planned sessions with journalism students will take place.

“The Kiplinger Class of 2020 provides our students in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism the opportunity to engage with journalists of very diverse backgrounds,” Dr. Robert Stewart, director of the school, said.  

The 2020 Kiplinger Fellows include, from the U.S.:

• David Martin Davies - Texas Public Radio
• Kristi Eaton - freelancer, New York Times, Ms.
• Kantele Franko - The Associated Press
• Anita Lee - Biloxi Sun Herald
• Todd Van Luling - The HuffPost
• La Risa Lynch - freelancer, Austin Weekly News, The Final Call
• Beatriz Pascual Macias - EFE News Agency
• Mark Oprea - freelancer, OZY
• Paola De Orte - freelancer, O Globo
• Amelia Robinson, Dayton Daily News
• Marianela Toledo - CNN Espanol
• Sage Van Wing - Oregon Public Broadcasting

International Fellows include:

• Tegan Bedser - SABC - South Africa
• Kattia Bermudez - La Nacion, Costa Rica
• Michael Ertl - BBC, England
• Sunny Freeman - The Canadian Press
• Sharon Lindores - The National Post, Canada
• Erkinbek Kamalov - Content Media, Kyrgyz Republic
• Natalia Messer - freelancer, Deutsche Welle, Germany
• Pradipta Mukherjee - Bloomberg, India
• Habib Oladapo - Civic Media Lab, Nigeria
• Julio Batista Rodriguez - Periodismo de Barrio, Cuba

This will mark the third year the fellowship has been held at Ohio University. The program formerly moved from Ohio State University in February where it had been for 47 years. This is the 10th year the fellowship has focused on digital media training. 

The Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism was established in 1972 by the late Austin Kiplinger, heir to the Kiplinger publishing business created by his father, the late Willard Kiplinger, a 1912 Ohio State University journalism graduate. The Kiplinger mission is to train journalists in necessary professional skills and to do this by giving them a reprieve from the pressures of the newsrooms. Willard Kiplinger's grandson, Knight Kiplinger, is the program's current benefactor.