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THANK YOU FOR 30 YEARS OF SUPPORT!
DEAR LOVERS OF CHICAGO MEDIA,
We are deeply grateful for your unwavering support of the Community Media Awards! Your investment in journalism, media, and storytelling is more than a contribution—it’s a commitment to equity, truth, and the power of narrative to drive meaningful change. Your support has enabled us to uplift voices too often left unheard and celebrate the work of those telling our most vital, communityrooted stories.
Your belief in the transformative potential of media emboldens our mission: to shift narratives, challenge harmful stereotypes, and empower communities to share their own lived experiences. The impact of your support is felt across neighborhoods, newsrooms, and generations—fostering a media landscape that reflects the complexity, resilience, and brilliance of our communities. Thank you to our board partners and everyone who made these last 30 years possible! Thank you for helping us move the needle toward a more just and representative storytelling ecosystem in the tradition of Studs Terkel!
Warmly,
Jhmira Alexander President and Executive Director Public Narrative
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PROGRAM 30
5:30 P.M. OPENING RECEPTION
Music by FINDING IJEOMA
Hors d’oeuvres provided by The Sole Ingredient Catering Beverages provided by Drinks on Me Chicago
Welcome and thank you for attending Public Narrative’s 30th Annual Community Media Awards
Sylvia Ewing, Vice President of Journalism and Media Engagement, Public Narrative
6:30 P.M. AWARDS CEREMONY
Thank you for supporting the Studs Terkel tradition!
Sonya Ross, Board Director, Public Narrative
Sylvia Ewing, Vice President of Journalism and Media Engagement
The Purpose and Power of this Moment
Jhmira Alexander, President and Executive Director, Public Narrative
Our Master of Ceremony
Cheryl Corley, Midwest Bureau Chief, National Public Radio
2025 Studs Terkel Community Media Award Winners
Alejandra Cancino, Senior Reporter, Injustice Watch
Tonia Hill, Multimedia Reporter, The TRiiBE
Mark Jacob, Former Metro Editor, Chicago Tribune
Andrew Patner (posthumously), Radio Host, WFMT
Mauricio Peña, Editorial Director, Borderless Magazine
2025 Uplifting Voices Award Winner
Maurice Bisaillon, Program Director and Executive Producer, Reparations Media
2025 Ripple Effect Award Winner
Eman Abdelhadi, Columnist, In These Times
Presenting Sponsor
Daniel O. Ash, President, The Field Foundation
2025 Dr. Timuel D. Black, Jr. Award for Civic Engagement
Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Associate Professor of History, The University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago United for Equity, Nonprofit Organization
2025 People’s Choice Award Nominees
Amethyst J. Davis, Founder, Harvey World Herald (tie)
Maira Khwaja, Multimedia Producer, Invisible Institute (tie)
Support Public Narrative: Stewards of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA)
Sylvia Ewing, Vice President of Journalism and Media Engagement, Public Narrative
8:55 P.M. CLOSING SONG
Studs’ favorite – “This Land is Your Land,” recorded by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
2025 STUDS TERKEL AWARD
ALEJANDRA CANCINO Senior Reporter
Injustice Watch
Alejandra Cancino is a senior reporter at Injustice Watch, a Chicago-based nonprofit newsroom investigating the Cook County court system. Her award-winning investigations focus on the intersection of government and businesses and combine data with personal stories that expose how people are affected by systemic failures. In 2022, she spent a year as an editor training emerging journalists at City Bureau. Earlier in her career, she covered manufacturing, economic development and labor as a business reporter at the Chicago Tribune.
TONIA HILL
Multimedia Reporter
The TRiiBE
Tonia Hill is an award-winning journalist from the South Side of Chicago, passionate about elevating the voices of Black Chicagoans and highlighting their resilience and joy. Her work is driven by a deep commitment to telling stories about the people and places in Chicago that inspire her. At The TRiiBE, she has reported on a wide range of topics, including politics, education, incarceration, cannabis, and the work of local nonprofits.
MARK JACOB
Former Metro Editor
Chicago Tribune
Mark Jacob is a former metro editor of the Chicago Tribune and a former Sunday editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. He is the co-author of 10 books, mostly about history. He was an editor on the recent “Division Street Revisited” podcast that took a new look at seven people in Studs Terkel’s first oral history book, “Division Street: America.” Jacob writes a weekly Substack newsletter about media and politics called Stop the Presses (stopthepresses.news).
ANDREW PATNER (POSTHUMOUSLY)
Radio Host
WFMT
Andrew Patner was a singular voice in Chicago media for three decades, working in print and radio as a reporter, arts critic, and commentator. His career included posts at Chicago Magazine (1981-83), WBEZ (1990-97), Chicago SunTimes (1991-2015), and WFMT (1998-2015). With his persistent curiosity, intuition, and understanding of social issues, Andrew’s work evoked that of his friend, Studs Terkel. At the time of his death in 2015, Andrew was regarded as Chicago’s most influential social and cultural critic.
MAURICIO PEÑA
Editorial Director
Borderless Magazine
Mauricio Peña is an award-winning journalist. He began his career as a crime and breaking news reporter at DNAinfo Chicago. He was a founding member and Southwest Side reporter for Block Club Chicago. Mauricio also worked as an investigative reporter covering immigration at the Desert Sun for the USA Today Network, an education reporter at Chalkbeat Chicago, and an associate digital editor at Chicago magazine.
2025 UPLIFTING VOICES AWARD
MAURICE BISAILLON
Program Director and Executive Producer
Reparations Media
Maurice Bisaillon is currently program director and executive producer at Reparations Media and has worked professionally in both New York and Chicago. Through nonfiction storytelling and training he has sought to open the medium to voices and views that are often underrepresented, misrepresented or wholly ignored by mainstream media. His broadcast credits include work for Discovery, History Channel and PBS. He has produced nearly a dozen episodes of Biography for A&E, including one of the series’ most widely distributed episodes—profiling President Barack Obama.
2025 RIPPLE EFFECT AWARD
EMAN ABDELHADI Columnist
In These Times
Eman Abdelhadi is an organizer, writer and scholar. She is assistant professor at the University of Chicago, where her research focuses on gender, migration and religion. Her academic work has appeared in Social Forces, Gender & Society, the British Journal of Sociology, and other outlets. She is also a columnist at In These Times magazine and co-author of the sci-fi novel: Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 (Common Notions Press, 2022). Abdelhadi organizes with the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at UChicago, Scholars for Social Justice, Sociologists for Palestine, and other formations.
DR. TIMUEL D. BLACK, JR. 2025 AWARD FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
ELIZABETH TODD-BRELAND
Associate Professor of History University of Illinois at Chicago
Elizabeth Todd-Breland is an Associate Professor of History and an Affiliated Faculty member in Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. She is author of A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s and co-author of I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education. A frequent public speaker, her research and teaching focus on U.S. urban history, African American history, the history of education, and public policy. From 2019 to 2024, Todd-Breland served as a member of the Chicago Board of Education.
CHICAGO UNITED FOR EQUITY
Nonprofit organization
Chicago United for Equity (CUE) is a network of racial justice advocates working across diverse types of civic power as organizers, researchers, artists, storytellers, policymakers, lawyers, and more to redesign Chicago’s civic institutions and transform Chicagoans’ relationship to power. Since 2018, CUE has garnered national recognition for developing people-powered voter guides, participatory budgets, and community-led policymaking strategies. CUE equips leaders across various sectors with the tools to drive transformational change, ignite civic imagination, and meaningfully engage with the most impacted communities across the Chicago region. CUE, its Fellows, and its partners harness their collective power and civic love in pursuit of a Chicago that works for all of us.
STAFF & CONSULTANTS
Jhmira Alexander, President and Executive Director
Sylvia Ewing, VP of Journalism and Media Engagement
Erica Bell, Office Coordinator
Sharon Bechdolt Okonek, Accountant
Andrea Darling, Accountant
Bob Goldsborough, Media Guide Researcher
Ivy Do, Digital Engagement Producer
Genita C. Robinson, CIMA Vision Planner
Dominique Griffin, CIMA Vision Planner
Demetrio Maguigad, Design Strategist
Clair Daney, Institute 2 Innovate Coach
GRANTORS
The Chicago Community Trust
The Democracy Fund
The Field Foundation
The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The Lohengrin Foundation
The Polk Bros. Foundation
The Wayfarer Foundation
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Derrick Fleming, Jr., Chicago Scholars
Alyce Myatt, Alyce Myatt Consulting
Sonya Ross, Boss Ross Consulting and Black Women
Unmuted
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
The Field Foundation, Presenting Sponsor
Cheryl Corley, Master of Ceremonies
Matthew Ewing, Videographer
FINDING IJEOMA, DJ
Tafari Melisizwe, Photographer
Sulyiman Stokes, Photographer
The Sole Ingredient Catering, Caterer
Drinks on Me Chicago, Bartender
Cliff Questel, Graphic Designer
TERKEL AWARDS COMMITTEE
Tracy Baim
Cate Cahan
Cheryl Corley
Kathy Chaney
Thom Clark
Brandis Friedman
Dahleen Glanton
Bill Healy
Maudlyne Ihejirika
Britt Julius
Alex Kotlowitz
Curtis Lawrence
Kari Lydersen
Alden Loury
Jerome McDonnell
Natalie Moore
Irene Romulo
Mary Schmich
Laura Washington
Eric Zorn
PAST WINNERS
2024
Bill Healy
Joshua McGhee
Darcel Rockett
Irene Romulo
Jacoby Cochran
Na-Tae Thompson
Deanna McCleary
Borderless Magazine
Dr. Shaniqua Jones
2023
Carlos Ballesteros
Jodi Cohen
Melissa Sanchez
Tiffany Walden
Jamie Nesbitt Golden
Craig Dellimore
Sylvia Snowden
Jorge Martinez
2022
Bob Black
Maya Dukmasova
Jacqueline Serrato
María Inés Zamudio
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
Lolly Bowean
Sarah Karp
Richard Steele
Cecilia Vaisman
Aurie Pennick
2015
Maudlyne Ihejirika
Monica Eng
Sharon Cohen
Darryl Holliday & Illustrated
Press
Adele Simmons
2014
Steve Bogira
Alejandro Escalona
Steve James
Gordon Quinn
Fred & Nikki Will Stein
Megan Cottrell
Fernando Diaz
Dave Hoekstra
Mick Dumke
Maria Hinojosa
Chip Mitchell
Linda Lenz
Kari Lydersen
Antônio Olivo 2010
Kate Grossman
Natalie Moore
Progress Illinois
2009
Thom Clark
David Jackson
Alden Loury
Scott Simon
2008
Tom McNamee
Dawn Turner Trice
WRTE 90.5FM Radio Arte
2007
Mary Helt Gavin
Stephen Franklin
WRTO 1200 AM La Tremenda
2006
Mark Brown
Mary C. Johns & The Editorial Staff of Residents’ Journal
Renee Ferguson 2005
Tracy Baim
John Conroy
Mary Schmich
James Weinstein
Alex Kotlowitz
Linda Lutton
Phil Ponce
Rick Kogan
Jorge Mota
Shirley Jahad
Phil Kadner
Curtis Lawrence
WVON – AM 1450
2001
Cornelia Grumman
Martha Irvine
Salim Muwakkil
2000
Lee Bey
Ira Glass
Teresa Puente
1999
Jon Anderson
Hank DeZutter
Harry Porterfield
Laura Washington
John White
1998
Ben Hollis
Chinta Strausberg
Eric Zorn
1997
John McDermott
Mary Mitchell
Don Terry
1996
Carol Marin
Achy Obejas
Ray Suarez 1995
Vernon Jarrett
Ben Joravsky
Charles Nicodemus
1994
Tom Weinberg 2002
Cheryl Corley
David Moberg
M.W. Newman
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