2023 Community Media Awards Program

SPONSORS LEAD

This event is being hosted at the historic Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University's departments of Communication, Media and Theatre, African and African American Studies, Sociology, English, World Languages and Cultures, Justice Studies, Latina/o and Latin American Studies, and the Student Media Board.

ADVOCATE

SUPPORTER A Picture’s Worth Center for Community Health, Northwestern University Elevate Energy SAG-AFTRA

MEDIA PARTNERS CAN TV Chicago Journalism Association

PROGRAM 5:30 p.m. OPENING RECEPTION Music by FINDING IJEOMA Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments from Outside the Box Carryout and Catering

6:30 p.m. AWARDS CEREMONY Welcome to Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies

2023 Ripple Effect Award Winner (new) Craig Dellimore, political editor, WBBM Newsradio 2023 People’s Choice Award Nominees (new) Josh McGhee and Ola Giwa, investigative reporter and data analyst, MindSite News Jamie Nesbitt Golden, reporter, Block Club Chicago Jorge Martinez, contributing reporter, Cicero Independiente

Akua Cason, interim director, Carruthers Center

Sylvia Snowden, broadcast journalist, CAN TV

Thank you for attending Public Narrative’s 28th Annual Community Media Awards

Public Narrative: Thirty-four years of cultivating better, more equitable stories

Jhmira Alexander, president and executive director, Public Narrative

Derrick Fleming, Jr., board chair, Public Narrative

Our Master of Ceremony

8:15 p.m. CLOSING SONG:

Cheryl Corley, Chicago-based correspondent, NPR

Studs’ favorite – “This Land is Your Land”

(Pictured right receiving the Studs Terkel Award from

Recorded by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

Studs himself in 1994. Archive.)

2023 Studs Terkel Community Media Award Winners Carlos Ballesteros, reporter, Injustice Watch Jodi Cohen, investigative reporter, ProPublica Melissa Sanchez, reporter, ProPublica Tiffany Walden, co-founder & editor-in-chief, The TRiiBE 2023 Uplifting Voices Award Winner Jamie Nesbitt Golden, reporter, Block Club Chicago

Carlos Ballesteros Reporter, Injustice Watch

Jodi Cohen Investigative Reporter, ProPublica

Carlos Ballesteros is an investigative reporter at Injustice Watch, a nonprofit journalism organization in Chicago.

Jodi Cohen has been a reporter in ProPublica’s Chicago newsroom since 2017. Her investigations at ProPublica have uncovered widespread police ticketing of students in Illinois, the misuse of seclusion and restraint practices in Illinois schools, and systemic problems in Michigan’s juvenile justice system after a girl was incarcerated during the pandemic for not doing her online school work. Her ProPublica work also has revealed a college financial aid scam and misconduct in a psychiatric research study at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

His work focuses on immigrants, older adults, and the criminal justice system. His most recent investigation revealed how Chicago police have blocked hundreds of undocumented immigrants from applying for legal status through a special visa available to crime victims. Carlos also co-wrote "Aging in the Shadows," a four-part series co-published in the Chicago Tribune about the rising number of undocumented older adults in Illinois.

Before joining Injustice Watch in 2020, Carlos wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times and Newsweek in New York. Carlos was born and raised in Chicago, and his family is originally from northern Mexico.

Jodi previously worked at the Chicago Tribune for 14 years, where she covered higher education and helped expose a secret admissions system at the University of Illinois, among other investigations.

Her work has led to changes in state law and policy, resignations of public officials, and the release of a teenager from detention.

Among other national and state honors, she has been awarded the Education Writers Association Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize, the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, the ONA Award for Investigative Data Journalism, the Chicago Headline Club’s Watchdog Award, and the Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers.

Jodi graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in political science. She is a board member and former crisis line volunteer at the nonprofit National Runaway Safeline and lives in Chicago with her husband and three children.

2023 STUDS TERKEL AWARD WINNERS

Melissa Sanchez Reporter, ProPublica Melissa Sanchez is an investigative reporter with ProPublica, where she writes about immigrants and low-wage work.

She has reported on the experiences of immigrant teens and children in the nation’s shelter system for unaccompanied immigrant minors and how many of them wind up working on factory floors in suburban Chicago. Her work examining how Chicago’s punitive system of ticketing and debt collection sent tens of thousands of mostly Black motorists into bankruptcy led to significant reforms, including changes to state law that ended the practice of suspending driver’s licenses over unpaid tickets.

Before joining ProPublica, Melissa reported for Catalyst Chicago, el Nuevo Herald in Miami, and the Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic. She has reported from Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Marcos, and two children, Samuel and Lucia, and is the proud daughter of immigrants.

Tiffany Walden Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The TRiiBE As co-founder and editor-in-chief of The TRiiBE, Tiffany Walden has impressively built a news organization that has become a vital piece of Chicago’s media landscape and a voice for Black Chicago.

She is a 2020 Leader for a New Chicago and an awardwinning journalist with bylines in local and national publications such as the Chicago Reader, BBC Travel, Complex Magazine and Vice. In 2021, Tiffany was listed as a change maker in Chicago Magazine's "The New Power 30" issue and included on the cover of the print edition. In 2018, Tiffany was selected to join the Poynter-NABJ Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media class.

Prior to launching The TRiiBE in 2017, Tiffany worked as a Breaking News Reporter at the Orlando Sentinel.

She was raised on the West Side of Chicago in the North Lawndale community, attended Providence St. Mel High School in Garfield Park and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with her BSJ in 2011 and MSJ in 2012. Through her work, she demonstrates a fierce advocacy for systemic change, giving agency to under-represented voices in Black communities. Tiffany helped lead The TRiiBE to three 2021 Peter Lisagor Award wins for Best Neighborhood/Community News Website, Best Sports Story and Best Print Design. Recently, the John S. Knight Fellowships named Tiffany as one of their U.S. fellows for their 2024 cohort.

2023 STUDS TERKEL AWARD WINNERS

Jamie Nesbitt Golden Reporter, Block Club Chicago

Craig Dellimore Political Editor, WBBM Newsradio

Jamie Nesbitt Golden has been writing stories since her mother bought her a red typewriter at age 8.

Craig Dellimore is the Political Editor for Newsradio WBBM, a post he has held since 2001. Craig joined the station in 1983 after working for several years with the Associated Press Radio Network in Washington D.C.

Her literary heroes are Mike Royko, Nikki Giovanni, and Zora Neale Hurston. Michael Jordan is her archnemesis. She's a mediocre Spades player and she kills plants like a trained assassin but she's really great at reporting.

She is an award-winning journalist covering Bronzeville and the Near South Side for Block Club Chicago. A lifelong Low End kid currently living in Hyde Park, Jamie’s work has appeared in Time, Salon, xoJane and Ebony.

During his time at WBBM, Craig has performed a variety of jobs, including anchor, managing editor, legislative correspondent and suburban bureau chief.

Craig has covered several national political conventions for WBBM. He said 2008 proved to be one of the most historic political years he has ever experienced. However, some of Craig’s most memorable stories have included assignments outside of the political realm. He covered the tragedy of the 1994 crash of American Eagle Flight 4184 in Roselawn, Indiana. He reported on the resilience of farmers and other Illinois residents along the Mississippi as they recovered from widespread flooding. And, over nearly two years, he periodically reported on a west suburban woman as she waited and waited for a lung transplant — and eventually received it.

Craig has won awards for his work from the Illinois Associated Press, the Chicago Society of Professional Journalists and more.

2023 UPLIFTING VOICES AWARD WINNER

2023 RIPPLE EFFECT AWARD WINNER

Stories Matter. Communities Matter.

Public Narrative Matters.

A message from longtime PN supporters Michael Burke & Robert Charles

Please join us in supporting Public Narrative as generously as you can.

This is smart, tough, necessary work.

This is work that heals. This is work that creates more equity, more justice. Your donation will be well-stewarded. Jhmira Alexander is an excellent leader who runs a lean, nimble organization where every dollar matters — and every dollar is spent wisely. Your contribution will go a long way — because Public Narrative works with hundreds of leaders and organizations throughout Chicago.

Your support matters.

Thank you!

(Pictured: Alton Miller, Studs Terkel, Michael Burke. Provided)

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STAFF & CONSULTANTS

TERKEL AWARDS COMMITTEE

Jhmira Alexander, president and executive director

Tracy Baim

Olivia Obineme, dir. of journalism and media engagement

Thom Clark

Yaseen Abdus-Saboor, education program manager Erica Bell, office coordinator Sharon Bechdolt Okonek, accountant Toya Griffin, administrator Bob Goldsborough, media guide researcher

Kathy Chaney Deborah Douglas Brandis Friedman Cornelia Grumman Britt Julious Kari Lydersen Steve Mills

GRANTORS The Chicago Community Trust The Chicago Foundation for Women The Crossroads Fund

Antônio Olivo, Jr. Teresa Puente Jacqueline Serrato Laura Washington

The Field Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Nike and the Jordan Brand Northwestern Medicine The Polk Bros. Foundation

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Northeastern Illinois University, our host Cheryl Corley, our master of ceremonies FINDING IJEOMA, our DJ for the evening Davon Clark, our photographer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Derrick Fleming, Jr., Chicago Scholars Brent Rollands, Fig Media Brenda Williams, Russell Williams Group

Out of the Box Carryout and Catering, our caterer CAN TV, our media broadcasting partner

PAST WINNERS

2022

2015

2007

1999

Bob Black

Maudlyne Ihejirika

Mary Helt Gavin

Jon Anderson

Maya Dukmasova

Monica Eng

Stephen Franklin

Hank DeZutter

Jacqueline Serrato

Sharon Cohen

Harry Porterfield

María Inés Zamudio

Darryl Holliday & Illustrated Press

WRTO 1200 AM La Tremenda

Shermann “Dilla” Thomas Michelle Duster

2021 Brandis Friedman Michael Puente Maureen O’Donnell Karen Hawkins Tonika Lewis-Johnson Jamie Kalven

2019 Deborah Douglas Britt Julious Jerome McDonnell Annie Sweeney Jeff McCarter Nikole Hannah-Jones

2018 Kathy Chaney Michael Spencer Green Dahleen Glanton Odette Yousef Kevin Coval

2017 Cate Cahan Steve Mills Carlos Javier Ortiz Univision Chicago Newsroom Terry Mazany

2016

Adele Simmons

2014 Steve Bogira Alejandro Escalona Steve James Gordon Quinn Fred & Nikki Will Stein

2013 Megan Cottrell Fernando Diaz

2006 Mark Brown Mary C. Johns & The Editorial Staff of Residents’ Journal

John White

1998 Ben Hollis Chinta Strausberg

Renee Ferguson

Eric Zorn

2005

1997

Tracy Baim

John McDermott

John Conroy

Mary Mitchell

Mary Schmich

Don Terry

James Weinstein

1996

Dave Hoekstra

2004

2012

Alex Kotlowitz

Achy Obejas

Linda Lutton

Ray Suarez

Mick Dumke Maria Hinojosa

Phil Ponce

Carol Marin

1995

Chip Mitchell

2003

2011

Rick Kogan

Ben Joravsky

Jorge Mota

Charles Nicodemus

Linda Lenz Kari Lydersen

Tom Weinberg

Vernon Jarrett

1994

Antônio Olivo

2002

2010

Shirley Jahad

David Moberg

Phil Kadner

M.W. Newman

Kate Grossman Natalie Moore Progress Illinois

2009 Thom Clark David Jackson Alden Loury

Curtis Lawrence WVON – AM 1450

2001 Cornelia Grumman Martha Irvine Salim Muwakkil

Scott Simon

2000

Sarah Karp

2008

Lee Bey

Richard Steele

Tom McNamee

Cecilia Vaisman

Dawn Turner Trice

Aurie Pennick

WRTE 90.5FM Radio Arte

Lolly Bowean

Laura Washington

Ira Glass Teresa Puente

Cheryl Corley

A Note: Honoring Hank and Studs I was looking forward to sharing accolades with tonight's talented group of journalists. But the miracle of a new kidney is keeping away from the festivities.

My long collaboration with Community Media Workshop/Public Narrative co-founder Hank DeZutter ran the gamut from our weekly Snap Judgments column in the Chicago Reader to Friday night poker with fellow journalists and activists.

But high on my list was our association with the remarkable author and eclectic disc jockey Studs Terkel.

(Pictured: Community Media Workshop/Public Narrative co-founders Thom Clark, left, and Hank DeZutter, right (d. 2022). Provided.)

I grew up listening to Studs and remember fondly his early oral history “Division Street.” Hank was a regular source for Studs and was included in his book “Race.” In our first meeting with him to talk about these awards, Studs quickly grasped what this organization was doing to lift all voices into mainstream media.

After Hank retired, I had the pleasure of engaging Studs in the annual selection of journalists going the extra mile in covering the city’s communities.

Late in life and especially after his recovery from a serious fall, my visits to his Uptown home became almost monthly ones. While on the wagon himself, he’d offer me “just a touch” of scotch while giving a running commentary to the TV, whether the talking heads on the Sunday talk shows, or that year’s chances of the Cubs having a winning season.

While happy to lend his name to honoring prominent journalists, he particularly loved naming at least one lesser-known, often younger scribe.

The honor roll of previous Terkel winners proves his foresight. As does tonight’s marvelous group of awardees.

Congratulations to Jhmira and Public Narrative for adding another chapter to the rich history of the Community Media Awards. “Take it easy, but take it!”

-Thom Clark