NEFAI 2023

About the New England
First Amendment Institute

Journalists from a variety of media and all six New England states will gather at Northeastern University in Boston from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31 to learn the latest investigative and database reporting techniques and public records access skills. The fellows chosen for this 13th annual New England First Amendment Institute reflect today’s diverse news media and come from daily and weekly newspapers, television and radio stations and online publications. Learn more about previous institutes here.

Supporters

This year’s institute is made possible by the generosity of Northeastern University, the Academy of New England Journalists, the Rhode Island Foundation and Boston University.

In addition to those named above, we would like to thank the following Leadership Circle donors and Major Supporters for their contributions: The Boston Globe, Paul and Ann Sagan, The Robertson Foundation, Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Genie Gannett for the First Amendment Museum, Linda Pizzuti Henry, Champa Charitable Foundation Fund and Connecticut Public.

Locations

In addition to local freedom of information law workshops, the Institute will be at the following locations in Boston from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31:

Northeastern University

The Institute will be held at Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue in Boston. For more than 40 years, the university’s School of Journalism has combined academic excellence with practical experience, preparing students to be analytical thinkers and successful communicators. Here’s more information on Northeastern University. A campus map can be found here.

Tuscan Kitchen

Dinner on Oct. 29 will be provided at the Tuscan Kitchen, 64 Seaport Boulevard in Boston.

The Westin Copley Place

The Institute hotel and the location of our Oct. 30 keynote presentation and dinner is The Westin Copley Place, 10 Huntington Avenue in Boston. The hotel is a short walk from the Northeastern University campus. Those needing a hotel room must email justin@nefac.org by Oct. 1.

Photos

• Oct. 29 Institute Dinner / Gloria Negri Tribute

NEFAI 2023 News

• Meet NEFAC’s First Class of Student Journalism Fellows From Rhode Island
• Meet NEFAC’s 2023 New England First Amendment Institute Journalism Fellows
• Keynote Speakers for 2023 New England First Amendment Institute Announced
• Applications for New England First Amendment Institute Now Available; Deadline August 18

Application Materials — Closed

• Application and Recommendation Form

Institute Links and Materials

• Curriculum (Schedule, Documents and Presentations)
• NEFAI 2023 Program (Includes Bios and Contact Info)
• Evaluations
• Future Fellow Nominations
• #NEFAI2023 on X

Keynote Speakers

Eric Meyer returned to a weekly newspaper he purchased in 1998 with his parents and worked at from fifth grade through college. He is now spending his retirement as majority owner, editor, and publisher of the Marion County Record in Marion, Kansas. A veteran of two years at the Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph and 18 years at the Milwaukee Journal, where he was news, photo and graphics editor and a Pulitzer Prize nominee for coverage of computer hackers, Meyer spent 26 years as a tenured professor of journalism at the University of Illinois before retiring in 2021. While a professor, he also worked as a consultant to more than 350 online publishers worldwide, was a visiting professor of social media at the Dallas Morning News and created and eventually sold an Internet startup that was the online home of American Journalism Review magazine. Meyer is the recipient of more than 200 statewide awards for everything from investigative reporting and editorial writing to photography and design, and national awards for projects focusing on campus crime, the identity of Deep Throat and student engagement in elections.

Sisi Wei is editor-in-chief at The Markup, a nonprofit investigative newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good. Previously, she was co-executive director of OpenNews, and assistant managing editor at ProPublica, where she oversaw teams focused on news apps, interactive storytelling, and visual investigations. She has managed large, interdisciplinary investigations, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize. In 2021, Wei won the Gwen Ifill Award for her work supporting women of color in news.

Brian M. Rosenthal is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The New York Times and the president of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), a nonprofit that trains thousands of journalists around the world. He has worked at The Times for six years, primarily writing in-depth stories about New York. Previously, he was a beat reporter covering local government at The Seattle Times and the Houston Chronicle. He won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for revealing that leaders of the New York taxi industry had trapped thousands of cabdrivers in predatory loans, and he was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for showing Texas was systematically denying special education services to children with disabilities. He also was part of a team that won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News. His other honors include three George Polk Awards, the Selden Ring Award for Investigation Reporting and a national Emmy Award. In addition to his work at The Times and IRE, he teaches about investigative journalism as an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism. He grew up in Indiana.

Faculty, Presenters and Other Speakers

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NEFAI 2023 Journalism Fellows

All fellows pictured left to right by state.

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NEFAI 2023 Student Journalism Fellows

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