(May 13, 2025) – Investigative Reporters and Editors is helping journalists and students around the country attend the 2025 IRE Conference in New Orleans.
Thanks to the help of our generous sponsors and donors, IRE was able to offer more than 60 fellowships for this year’s conference. This cohort of fellows represents newsrooms and colleges across the country. IRE is eager to host and offer them the best of our training.
Congratulations, IRE25 fellows!
Established in honor of the late David Dietz, award-winning journalist and past president of IRE, this fellowship supports early-career journalists who have a demonstrated interest in financial investigative reporting.
- Dan Mika – 9fin (New York)
- Paige Tortorelli – CNBC (Chicago)
Established to honor late IRE member Eric B. Sager, who worked mainly in trade publications, this fellowship supports U.S. and independent journalists.
- Aaron Bolton – Montana Public Radio (Columbia Falls, MT)
- Anastasiia Carrier – Charlottesville Tomorrow (Charlottesville, VA)
- Eliza Partika – independent journalist (Glendale, CA)
- Priyanka Runwal – Chemical & Engineering News (New York)
- Jatara McGee – WPXI (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Logan Hartman – Springfield Daily Citizen (Marshfield, MO)
- Myracle Lewis – The Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA)
- Rabia Gursoy – independent journalist (Bloomingdale, NJ)
Established by longtime IRE member David Jackson to honor trusted Chicago Tribune colleague Gary Marx, this fellowship supports U.S.-based college journalism students and early-career journalists.
- Rachel Hale – USA TODAY (Naperville, IL)
- Hope Moses – Northwestern University (Chicago)
- Angelica Perez – Houston Landing (Crosby, TX)
- Chris Clements – Wyoming Public Radio (Laramie, WY)
Established by former IRE board member Nancy Stancill and her family in memory of her father, Godfrey Wells Stancill (who was an editor and publisher of the Suffolk News-Herald), this fellowship supports journalists working for newspapers with a Sunday circulation of under 50,000.
- Alexandra Garner – Sheboygan Press/USA TODAY NETWORK (Milwaukee, WI)
Established by several individual IRE members and new organization sponsors, this fellowship is intended to support journalist of colors and prepare them for a solid career in investigative reporting. In 2023, the fellowship was renamed in honor of murdered journalist Chauncey Bailey.
- José Ignacio Castañeda – Spotlight Delaware (Wilmington, DE)
- Daniela Ibarra – KSAT (San Antonio)
- Aallyah Wright – Capital B News (Washington, D.C.)
IRE Fellowships
- Diti Kohli – Boston Globe (Boston)
- Keri Johnson – Athens County Independent (Athens, OH)
- Mathew Miranda – The Sacramento Bee; Sacramento, CA)
- Agya Aning – independent journalist (Brooklyn, NY)
- Candace Y.A. Montague – independent journalist (Ellicott City, MD)
- Emily Rizzo – Kensington Voice (Philadelphia)
- Emily Anderson Stern – The Salt Lake Tribune (Bountiful, UT)
- Jen Clancey – Explore Big Sky (Bozeman, MT)
- Jillian Taylor – StateImpact Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
- Vanessa Kjeldsen – Gray Television/WMTV 15 (Madison, WI)
- McKenna Oxenden – Houston Landing (Houston)
- Natalia Galicza – Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
- Max Rivera – Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY (Brooklyn, NY)
- Tom Riese – WESA-FM (Lancaster, PA)
- Giovanny Vega – El Vocero de Puerto Rico (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico)
- Lisa Armstrong – UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Oakland, CA)
- Rochelle Alleyne – WBNS (Columbus, OH)
- Annika Hom – independent journalist (Mexico City)
- Eliza Fawcett – Healthbeat (Brooklyn, NY)
- Melissa Montalvo – The Fresno Bee (Fresno, CA)
- Cyana Francis-Berkitt – CBS News Baltimore (Towson, MD)
- Jessica Meza – University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, NE)
- Kamila Eshalieva – Clemson University (Seneca, SC)
- Riya Misra – Rice University (Houston)
- Erica Little – University of Missouri (Columbia, MO)
- Natanya Friedheim – University of Missouri (Columbia, MO)
- Jasmine Wright – University of Texas at Austin (Austin)
- Maya Liquigan – Columbia College Chicago (Chicago)
- Meredith Roberts – Austin PBS (Austin)
- Kelsea Frobes – University of Nevada, Reno (Reno, NV)
- Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman – Concordia University (Montreal, Canada)
- Sierra Blaser – University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)
- Juan Pablo Lopez – Georgetown University (Silver Spring, MD)
Named in honor of Dr. James Richard Bennett, professor emeritus of English at the University of Arkansas, this scholarship supports journalism students in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
- Lia Portillo – Northwestern State University of Louisiana (Galliano, LA)
Jeff German Fellowship
Funded by the Jeff German Fund for Investigative Journalism, this fellowship is meant to help continue the kind of game-changing reporting late Las Vegas-Review Journal Jeff German devoted his life to producing.
- Molly Montgomery – Searchlight New Mexico (Santa Fe, NM)
Established by former IRE president David Cay Johnston to honor his wife, Jennifer Leonard, this fellowship supports women who are college journalism students or early-career professional journalists.
- Isabel Lewis – Sarah Lawrence College (New York)
Established to honor and memorialize Mike Levine, a columnist and executive editor of the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, NY, this fund supports journalists working in daily or weekly print news organizations or digital-only news outlets.
- Susanna Granieri – First Amendment Watch (New York)
- Morgan Womack – Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME)
Established by the Napoli Management Group, this scholarship supports early-career TV journalists interested in investigative reporting.
- Samantha Boring – KCTV5 News (Gardner, KS)
- Isabel Cleary – WCMH NBC4 (Columbus, OH)
- Sage Smiley – KYUK Public Media (Bethel, AK)
IRE ProPublica Fellowship
Established by ProPublica, this fellowship supports U.S.-based journalists, educators and students of color; those in the LGBTQ+ community; and those with disabilities.
- Jesse Fraga – The Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA)
- Christine Stoddard (Sánchez) – Columbia Graduate School of Journalism School (New York)
- Lylah Schmedel-Permanna – CalMatters College Journalism Fellow (Oakland, CA)
Sandra Thomas Environmental Fellowship
Established by family and friends of late IRE member Sandra Thomas, this fellowship supports journalists working to shine a light on the environment and find better ways to preserve it.
- Alex Lubben – The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
- Olivia Garrett – Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Corpus Christi, TX)
