Journalists from a variety of media and all six New England states attended local workshops, viewed online lessons and received in-person instruction at Northeastern University in Boston. They learned the latest investigative and database reporting techniques and public records access skills. The fellows chosen for this 14th annual Negri Institute reflected today’s diverse news media and came from daily and weekly newspapers, television and radio stations and online publications. Learn more about previous institutes here.
Institute Photos
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 and WCVB-Boston.
Locations
In addition to local freedom of information law workshops, the Institute will be at the following locations in Boston from Oct. 20 to Oct. 22:
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. 20 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. 21 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.
Institute News
• UMass Amherst: Juliannie Ayala Invited to Gloria L. Negri First Amendment Institute
• Negri First Amendment Institute Keynote Speakers and Faculty Announced
• Select Group of Rhode Island, Massachusetts Journalism Students to Attend Institute
• Meet NEFAC’s 2024 Gloria L. Negri First Amendment Institute Journalism Fellows
• Applications for Negri First Amendment Institute Now Available; Open to New England Journalists
Application Materials — (Closed)
• Application and Recommendation Form
Institute Information
• Program (Including Bios and Contact Info)
• Schedule, Curriculum and Class Materials
• Post-Program Surveys
Keynote Speakers
Jill Abramson leads the Northeastern University Burnes Center for Social Change’s Initiative on Investigative Solutions Journalism. She is a journalist who spent 17 years in the most senior editorial positions at The New York Times, where she was the first woman to serve as Washington bureau chief, managing editor, and executive editor. Before joining the Times, she was deputy Washington bureau chief and an investigative reporter covering money and politics at The Wall Street Journal for nine years. She was the editor of Legal Times in Washington, D.C. She is the author of six books, including Strange Justice, which she wrote with Jane Mayer and Merchants of Truth, a narrative history of the digital transition of the news media. From 2015-2019 she also wrote a weekly political column for The Guardian.
Lauren Chooljian is a senior reporter/producer at NHPR, the NPR affiliate in New Hampshire. She is a part of NHPR’s DOCUMENT team, a narrative-driven, long form reporting project. She is the host and reporter behind The 13th Step, a podcast about sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry. The 13th Step was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Audio reporting. The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Vogue called the show one of the best podcasts of 2023. Chooljian’s work has won numerous awards, including the prestigious duPont-Columbia award, a National Edward R Murrow award, an RTDNA First Amendment Award and she has been recognized by the Third Coast International Audio Festival. Chooljian has also been featured in the New York Times for co-hosting Stranglehold, an award-winning podcast about New Hampshire’s first in the nation presidential primary. She was featured again in June 2023, for the retaliation she, her colleagues, sources and family faced for her reporting in The 13th Step.
Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on NHPR’s Document team. He has created documentary podcast series on topics including unsolved murders, secret lists of police officers, and overdose deaths that are prosecuted as homicides. Moon’s work includes Bear Brook seasons one and two, which together have been downloaded more than 28 million times by listeners in over 150 countries. Stephen King called both seasons, “the best true crime podcasts I’ve ever heard. Brilliant, involving, hypnotic.” The New Yorker magazine called Bear Brook S1 one of the best podcasts of 2018. In 2021, Moon and his colleague Lauren Chooljian were honored with a Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition award. Before joining NHPR in 2015, Moon interned with a variety of public radio organizations including StoryCorps, Transom.org, and WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama. He graduated from Bennington College.
Sigmund D. Schutz represents the news media in First Amendment matters, defamation and privacy, state and federal freedom of information, newsgathering and cyber law. As a partner at Preti Flaherty, LLP and media law counsel for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram for more than 25 years, Schutz has served as counsel in many precedent setting public access cases in Maine. They have involved access to transcripts of 911 calls, the right to attend jury selection in criminal cases in Maine state court, access to “draft” settlement agreements to which the State of Maine is a party, access to dash cam police cruiser video, obtaining records of closed law enforcement investigations, access to state police disciplinary records and the standard for proceeding under pseudonyms in federal litigation.
Paul Singer is the Senior Editor, Equity & Justice at GBH News. Singer previously served as Investigative Editor for the GBH News Center for Investigative reporting, where he spearheaded GBH’s Life After Prison series documenting the challenges faced by thousands of people in Massachusetts who return from incarceration each year. With a group of Boston University students, Singer also led the creation of the interactive project ” Mapping the Enslavement History of the Freedom Trail.” Prior to moving to Boston in 2018, Singer served as Politics Editor for USA Today, White House Correspondent for the UPI wire service and stage manager/roadie for the National Folk Festival in Lowell (and other cities).
Faculty, Presenters and Other Speakers
Temi-Tope Adeleye
WJAR
Dugan Arnett
The Boston Globe
Dan Barrett
ACLU of Connecticut
Mike Beaudet
Northeastern University
WCVB Boston
Robert A. Bertsche
Klaus Law
Len Besthoff
NBC Connecticut
Gilles Bissonnette
ACLU of New Hampshire
Andrew Botolino
Boston University
Peter J. Caruso, Sr.
Caruso & Caruso
Colleen Cronin
ecoRI
Paul Cuno-Booth
New Hampshire Public Radio
Beth Daley
The Conversation
John Ellement
The Boston Globe
Zeninjor Enwemeka
WBUR
Cindy Galli
ABC News
Courtney Lamdin
Seven Days
Anastasia Lennon
The New Bedford Light
Shirley Leung
The Boston Globe
Sharon Machlis
Data Journalist and Author
Jenifer McKim
GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting
Judith Meyer
Maine Trust for Local News
Deanna Pan
The Boston Globe
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
Hearst Connecticut Media Group
Nikita Roy
International Center for Journalists
Mike Savino
NBC Connecticut
Eli Sherman
WPRI Providence
Harrison Stark
ACLU of Vermont
Gregory V. Sullivan
Malloy & Sullivan
Emily Sweeney
The Boston Globe
Annmarie Timmins
New Hampshire Public Radio
Gal Tziperman Lotan
GBH News
Todd Wallack
WBUR Boston
Tim White
WPRI Providence
Brooke Williams
Boston University
Negri First Amendment Institute Fellows
Pictured From Left to Right
CONNECTICUT
Liz Hardaway
Hearst Connecticut
Media Group
Jeniece Roman
WSHU
Jessica Simms
Greenwich Time
Abby Weiss
Hearst Connecticut
Media Group
MAINE
Anna Coon
WGME
Jake Freudberg
Morning Sentinel
Dylan Tusinski
Morning Sentinel
Marie Weidmayer
Bangor Daily News
MASSACHUSETTS
William Dowd
The Marblehead Current
Grace Ferguson
New Bedford Light
Colin Hogan
New Bedford Light
Anjali Huynh
The Boston Globe
Namu Sampath
The Republican
Walter Wuthmann
WBUR
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Sruthi Gopalakrishnan
Concord Monitor
Charlotte Matherly
Concord Monitor
Catherine McLaughlin
Concord Monitor
RHODE ISLAND
Ben Berke
The Public’s Radio
Nancy Lavin
Rhode Island Current
Chris Shea
Rhode Island Current
Rob Smith
ecoRI
Alex Torres-Perez
WPRI
VERMONT
Emma Cotton
VTDigger
Shaun Robinson
VTDigger
Laura Ullman
WCAX
Negri First Amendment Institute Student Fellows
Pictured From Left to Right
Juliannie Ayala
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Caitlyn A. Bailey
Salve Regina University
Ava Berger
Boston University
Maria Gabriela De Leon
Rhode Island College
Sonel Cutler
Northeastern University
Hannah Nguyen
Emerson College
Ellie Sennhenn
University of Rhode Island
Alexandra Tavaglione
Roger Williams University