Since its beginning in 1980, the Ben Bagdikian Fellowship Program has featured more than 700 up-and-coming journalists, with more than half continuing their careers in media and journalism. Graduates of the program have gone on to become award-winning journalists, lead magazines and other news organizations, found new and innovative endeavors, and generally shape the nation’s journalistic and policy dialogue. Of Mother Jones‘ current staff of 69, 13 got their start as fellows, including our managing editor, senior research editor, photo editor, advertising director, development manager, business development manager, assistant editor, copy editor, plus five staff reporters.
Here’s just a sampling of the program’s esteemed alumni (year denotes when alum started the program):
- Peter Waldman (1982), editor, projects and investigations, Bloomberg News
- Chris Lehmann (1985), senior editor, the Baffler, editor at Bookforum, and an author
- Kerry Lauerman (1992), editor at the Washington Post, former editor-in-chief at Salon
- Michelle Cottle (1993), contributing editor at The Atlantic, former reporter for the Daily Beast
- Eric Umansky (1995), deputy managing editor at ProPublica
- Mark Murray (1996), senior political editor at NBC News
- Julian Brookes (1998), media director for the US program at Human Rights Watch, former editor at Mother Jones and Rolling Stone
- Mat Honan (1998) Editor-in-chief, MIT Technology Review
- Lakshmi Chaudhry (1999), former executive editor at Firstpost.com, India’s first web-only news site; former editor at In These Times and The Nation
- Michael Scherer (2000), Washington bureau chief at Time
- Janelle Nanos (2004), business reporter at the Boston Globe, formerly at Boston magazine, New York magazine, and National Geographic Traveler
- Brad Plumer (2004), senior editor at Vox, former reporter at the Washington Post, and former assistant editor at The New Republic
- Meghann Farnsworth (2004), director, distribution and engagement, at the Center for Investigative Reporting
- Ann Friedman (2005), columnist for the New York magazine, contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times, ELLE, and the Guardian
- Jon Mooallem (2005), contributing writer at New York Times Magazine, author, and frequent contributor to Pop-Up Magazine
- Michael Beckel (2005), politics reporter at the Center for Public Integrity
- Jonathan Stein (2005), staff attorney and program manager, voting rights, at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus and City of Oakland Public Ethics Commissioner
- Gabriel Mac (2007), National Magazine Award nominee for two articles for Mother Jones, where he was a senior reporter, author of For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question and Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story.
- Casey Miner (2007), news producer/editor at KALW
- Nick Baumann (2007), Politics editor, the Atlantic
- Marian Wang (2009), researcher at Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, former reporter at ProPublica
- Sam Baldwin (2009), product manager at Wired
- Taylor Wiles (2010), web editor at High Country News
- Eric Sullivan (2010), Senior editor, Esquire
- Hamed Aleaziz (2011), Immigration reporter, BuzzFeed News
- Maya Dusenbery (2011), executive director, editorial, at Feministing
- Azeen Ghorayshi (2011), Science editor, BuzzFeed News
- Asawin Suebsaeng (2011), Senior political reporter, Daily Beast
- Sarah Zhang (2012), Staff writer, the Atlantic
- Thomas Stackpole (2013), Senior editor, Harvard Business Review
- Sydney Brownstone (2013), staff writer at the Stranger
- Sam Brodey (2014), Congressional reporter, Daily Beast
- Jenna McLaughlin (2014), Cybersecurity correspondent, NPR
- Oliver-Ash Kleine (2016), Senior producer, TransLash Media
- Karen Hao (2016), Senior editor, MIT Technology Review
- Alex Sammon (2016), Staff writer, the American Prospect
- Maha Ahmed (2017), Research chief, Type Investigations
- Sophie Murguia (2018), Culture editor, Outside magazine
- Nuria Marquez Martinez (2019), Producer, Axios
- Camille Squires (2019), Reporter, Quartz
Current Mother Jones staff who went through our fellowship program are Becca Andrews, Khary Brown, Arianna Coghill, Isabela Dias, Hannah Levintova, Nina Liss-Schultz, Mark Murrmann, Samantha Michaels, Tim Murphy, Maddie Oatman, Madison Pauly, Noah Lanard, Jackie Mogensen, Sophie Murguia, Jacob Rosenberg, and Abigail Weinberg.
Are you a former MoJo intern or fellow? Stay on our radar by sending your contact information to fellowships@motherjones.com by asking to join our Mother Jones Fellowship Alumni Network page so we can keep you up-to-date.
More about the program: