Report for America presented awards to journalists in a dozen categories and named a Mentor of the Year at its inaugural Local News Awards program, held virtually, June 25.
Among the evening’s top winners was The Columbus Dispatch’s Ceili Doyle, who took home Dispatch of the Year honors for her piece “Against the tide: A small town in Appalachia engineers its revival.” Doyle also earned second place in the Black Lives Matter/Protest category for “What’s it like to grow up Black in rural Ohio?”
DCist’s Dee Dwyer took home first- and second-place awards, earning top honors in the Feature Photo category for “Elvera Patrick” and second place in the Spot News Photo category for “Breonna Taylor Protest”.
Other first-place winners were Raymon Troncoso, Capitol News Illinois; Becky Dernbach, Sahan Journal; Arielle Dreher, Spokesman-Review; Brandon Lingle, San Antonio Express-News; Leah Willingham, Associated Press; Lauren Peace, Mountain State Spotlight; Alejandra Martinez, KERA; Samantha Max, WPLN; Madeleine Cook, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer’ and Jaida Grey Eagle, Sahan Journal
CNN’s Jen Christensen was honored as the Mentor of the Year for her work with H.L. Comeriato, a corps member who covers the healthcare system for The Devil Strip in Akron, Ohio. Christensen is a producer with CNN’s Health & Climate Unit, a documentary and data producer, and a reporter with CNN.com. She is also vice president of print and online for NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists.
“Every day, our Report for America corps members produce work that is, in many cases, life changing. We decided to create our own awards ceremony to recognize this good work,” said Alison Bethel McKenzie, vice president of corps excellence for Report for America. “The stories pushed out by these service-minded journalists come directly from their communities, many of which have been neglected by newsrooms and newspapers of record for a long time. We are so proud of their work and their commitment to local news coverage.”
The inaugural Report for America 2021 Local News Awards winners are:
REPORTING
Black Lives Matter/Protests
First place
Raymon Troncoso, Capitol News Illinois, “Lame Duck Look Back”
Second place
Ceili Doyle, The Columbus Dispatch, “What’s it like to grow up Black in rural Ohio?”
Third place
Becky Jacobs, Salt Lake Tribune, “Black Lives Matter Utah leader says ‘it’s go time’ for police reform”
Community Leadership
First place
Becky Dernbach, Sahan Journal, “Northfield becoming a model for rising Latino power in rural Minnesota”
Second place
Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Island Packet, “Two hours inside a COVID vaccine clinic for farm workers”
Third place
Devna Bose, The Charlotte Observer, “Charlotte is taking a new approach to drug cases. It could change lives.”
COVID-19
First place
Arielle Dreher, Spokesman-Review, “Why COVID-19 Overwhelmed the Close-Knit Marshallese Community in Spokane”
Second place
Iris Samuels, Associated Press, “Records: Montana governor feared backlash over mask mandate”
Third place
Hannah Grabenstein, MLK 50, “Misinformation and mistrust: Officials face big hurdles in vaccine-hesitant Memphis neighborhood”
Enterprise
First place
Brandon Lingle, San Antonio Express-News, “The Rise of SpaceX in South Texas”
Second place
K. Sophie Will, The Spectrum, “Tourism impact in rural Utah”
Third place
Rose Lundy, Maine Monitor, “Preparing for a cold, hungry winter”
Feature
First place
Leah Willingham, Associated Press, “Small-town Bluesman Keeps Aging Music Alive”
Second place
Teddy Rosenbluth, The Concord Monitor, “New Hampshire Pandemic Homelessness”
Third place
Kelan Lyons, The Connecticut Mirror, “Connecticut Sentence Modification”
Investigative
First place
Lauren Peace, Mountain State Spotlight, “Cost of Closure”
Second place
Wyatt Massey, Chattanooga Times Free Press, “The Windfall Prophet”
Third place
Camille Fassett, Associated Press, “Child abuse on the rise during the pandemic”
PHOTO
Spot News Photo
First place
Jaida Grey Eagle, Sahan Journal, “Cup Foods”
Second place
Dee Dwyer, DCist, “Breonna Taylor protest”
Third place
Chris Jones, 100 Days in Appalachia, “Black Lives Matter Rally”
Feature Photo
First place
Dee Dwyer, DCist, “Elvera Patrick”
Second place
Keren Carrion, KERA, “Day of the Dead”
Third place
Madeleine Cook, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, “Vaccinations at Safehouse Ministries”
AUDIO
Feature audio
First place
Alejandra Martinez, KERA, “In the Shadow of Shingle Mountain”
Second place
Antonia Ayres-Brown, The Public’s Radio, “Newport: Connecting a city divided for decades”
Third place
Eve Zuckoff, WCAI, “Scientists track an endangered whale with a drone”
Investigative Audio
First place
Samantha Max, WPLN, “Nashville: Deadly Force”
Second place
Emily Allen, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, “Bluefield City Leaders Address Broken Promise to Hold Police Accountable”
Third place
Graham Ambrose, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, “Kentucky Has Millions To Stop Evictions. Some Landlords Won’t Take It”
VIDEO
Feature video
First place
Madeleine Cook, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, “Green Cemetery”
Second place
Keren Carrion, KERA, “He Was Collateral Damage”
DISPATCH OF THE YEAR
First Place
Céilí Doyle, Columbus Dispatch, “Against the tide: A small town in Appalachia engineers its revival”
Second Place
Maria Sestito, The Desert Sun, “‘Why am I still here?’ Finding hope in human connections even when the pandemic robs us of purpose”
Third Place
Emily Allen, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, “A broken promise to hold police accountable in small West Virginia town”
MENTOR OF THE YEAR
Jen Christensen, CNN
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About Report for America
Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities. Launched in 2017, Report for America is creating a new, sustainable system that provides Americans with the information they need to improve their communities, hold powerful institutions accountable, and rebuild trust in the media. Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization with an established track record of training and supporting teams of emerging journalists around the world, including the recent launch of Report for the World in partnership with local newsrooms in India and Nigeria.