Apply by March 31 for $20,000 investigative reporting fellowship for community-based projects in news deserts

The Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Pittsburgh is now accepting applications for its $20,000 Doris O'Donnell Innovations in Investigative Journalism Fellowship. Click here for more information or to apply.

The fellowship, now in its third year, is designed for community-based journalists with investigative projects in news deserts. "Community-based journalism is disappearing across the country, and it is critical that we work to reverse that trend," center Director Andrew Conte said in a news release. "At a time when we have more tools than ever to access information, it is becoming increasingly difficult to support news at a local level."

The center will also award a second-place prize of $5,000 and a third-place prize of $2,500. The fellowship and runner-up prizes are possible through a three-year grant from the Allegheny Foundation. Applications are due March 31 and the winners will be announced in April.

Erica Hensley won the fellowship in 2020 for a project on unreported lead exposure in the Mississippi Delta and its impact on residents' health. Then an investigative reporter for Mississippi Today, she now covers health for global nonprofit The Fuller Project.

Sunnie Clahchischiligi, a contributing writer for Searchlight New Mexico, won the fellowship in 2021 for a project that exposed educational failures in Navajo Nation schools that allowed thousands of students to go missing from attendance rolls during the pandemic.

The fellowship is named for pioneering journalist Doris O'Donnell, who worked began her 50-year career at the Cleveland News in World War II, then went on to work for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Greensburg Tribune-Review.