CINCINNATI – The Scripps Howard Fund has chosen the 2023-2024 class of Roy W. Howard Fellows as well as the nonprofit newsrooms hosting the Fellows. The program supports investigative journalists, giving them hands-on experience working in major media outlets.
The newsrooms participating in the yearlong program are: Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Chicago Public Media, Flatwater Free Press, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and The Maine Monitor.
The fellowships honor Roy W. Howard, former chairman of the Scripps Howard newspaper chain and a pioneering news reporter whose relentless pursuit of the news took him around the world, spurred innovation and helped lay the groundwork for modern journalism.
The fellowships, which are awarded bi-annually, are given to graduates of the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and Arizona State University. The Howard Centers were established in 2018. The Scripps Howard Fund is a public charity that supports causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) and the Scripps and Howard families.
The 2023-2024 Roy W. Howard Fellows:
Brendon Derr – Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Arizona State University
Derr earned his master’s degree in investigative journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. As a reporter at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Derr worked on the award-winning project “Little Victims Everywhere.” The investigation exposed systemic problems with the federal government’s investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse cases in Indian Country. It was honored with several collegiate and professional journalism awards. He also reported on the prisons and jails team for The New York Times’ COVID-tracking effort, which won the newsroom a Pulitzer Prize in public service. Most recently, Derr worked as a data reporter for the Houston Chronicle. He’ll begin his fellowship at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting in July.
Jessica Alvarado Gamez – Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Arizona State University
Alvarado Gamez earned her master’s degree in investigative journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She was a reporter for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, covering housing barriers in Arizona and national policing practices. She also reported on police reform for the Carnegie-Knight News21 Program as a Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow, specializing in documentary production and photography. Her work has been featured by the Associated Press, Univision Arizona, Arizona PBS and the City of Phoenix PHXTV. Beginning in July, Alvarado Gamez will work as a fellow for Chicago Public Media.
Emmett Gartner – Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, University of Maryland
Gartner earned his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Vermont. While working as a reporter at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Gartner helped produce two-award winning investigations, including “Printing Hate,” which documented the historic role of newspapers inciting racial lynchings, and “Mega Billions,” which investigated state lottery operations. Most recently, Gartner covered health and environment stories for The Frederick (Maryland) News-Post. He also worked for the U.S. Forest Service in
Oregon and interned for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He will begin his yearlong fellowship at The Maine Monitor in July.
Destiny Herbers – Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, University of Maryland
Herbers is a graduate of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she received her master’s degree in journalism from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She received her bachelor’s degree in communication from Alma College in Michigan. While at UMD, Herbers covered NASA for the school’s Capital News Service, reporting on future missions to Mars. She also wrote about journalists killed and displaced by the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Herbers contributed research to the Howard Center’s award-winning project, “Mega Billons,” an investigation of state lotteries. She was also part of an ongoing Associated Press investigation into law enforcement practices. Most recently, Herbers developed a web application for users to explore Maryland’s school board spending data for UMD’s Local News Network. Herbers begins her fellowship at the Flatwater Free Press in July.
Eve Sampson – Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, University of Maryland
Sampson is a 2023 University of Maryland graduate, where she earned her master’s degree in journalism from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She graduated with a degree in psychology from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2016 and served as an Army engineer officer in Syria and Kuwait, which she said fueled her interest in telling the stories of people affected by war and trauma. As a reporter for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, she worked on a nationwide collaboration with the Associated Press on police practices. She also wrote a story for the center’s award-winning project, “Printing Hate.” Sampson also covered the Pentagon and reported on the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the school’s Capital News Service. Sampson will begin her fellowship with ICIJ in August.
About the Scripps Howard Fund
The Scripps Howard Fund is a public charity that supports philanthropic causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) and the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on journalism education, excellence in journalism and childhood literacy. At the crossroads of the classroom and the newsroom, the Fund is a leader in supporting journalism through scholarships, internships, minority recruitment and development and First Amendment causes. The Scripps Howard Awards stand as one of the industry’s top honors for outstanding journalism, and the Fund’s annual “If You Give a Child a Book …” childhood literacy campaign has distributed thousands of new books to children in need across the nation. In support of its mission to create a better-informed world, the Fund also partners with Scripps brands to create awareness of local issues and support organizations that help build thriving communities. The Scripps Howard Foundation, an affiliated organization with the Scripps Howard Fund, supports Scripps’ charitable efforts through its endowment, key assets and major donors, including the Scripps and Howard families.
About the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
The Cronkite School is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier professional journalism programs. Cronkite champions a “teaching hospital” model of journalism education in which students create professional content under the guidance of top professionals. Cronkite News, the student-powered, faculty-led news division of Arizona PBS with news bureaus in Phoenix, Washington and Los Angeles, produces a daily newscast for the station. Cronkite emphasizes programs that experiment with new forms of in-depth information gathering, storytelling, audience engagement, digital interactivity and revenue models.