McGraw Center awards grants for biz reporting projects

Four veteran journalists have won grants of up to $15,000 as recipients of the fourth round of the McGraw Fellowships for Business Journalism.

Two of the winning projects will explore challenges facing the modern pharmaceutical industry: one centers on the inadequate regulation of generic drugs produced around the globe, while the other examines the difficulty of stemming long-standing problems in the lucrative “gray market” for pharmaceuticals.

A third project will go beyond Flint, Michigan, to look at issues elsewhere in the nation’s troubled water infrastructure system.

The McGraw Fellowships, an initiative of the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Center for Business Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism,  were created in 2014 to support ambitious coverage of critical issues related to the U.S. economy and business.

The Fellowships – awarded twice a year – enable accomplished journalists to do the deep reporting needed to produce a distinguished investigative or enterprise business story. The first McGraw Fellows were named in July 2014.

Nearly 80 journalists working in more than half-a-dozen countries applied for the latest round of Fellowships. The winners were chosen following interviews and a thorough review of detailed proposals, work samples and references.

Each McGraw Fellow receives a stipend of $5,000 a month for up to three months. In addition to financial backing, the McGraw Center provides Fellows with editorial guidance and assistance in placing their stories with media outlets.

The Summer 2016 McGraw Fellows are:

Elizabeth Douglass:  A correspondent for InquireFirst, a new San Diego-based non-profit investigative journalism venture, Douglass’ Fellowship project will examine the nation’s deteriorating water infrastructure and water quality protections, with an emphasis on issues beyond those highlighted by the Flint water disaster.

A previous finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award, her stories have led to appearances on The Rachel Maddow Show, Public Radio International, and Chicago public radio, as well as in a PBS documentary about turmoil in the defense industry. Douglass is a former staff writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News.

Katherine Eban: A New York-based investigative reporter, Eban will use the Fellowship to complete research for a book about the generic drug revolution, which will be published by Harper Collins (Ecco imprint). The book will explore the 21st century shift to generic drugs and to overseas manufacturing, the challenges of regulating in a globalized world, and the resulting geopolitical and public-health consequences. Eban’s previous articles on pharmaceutical counterfeiting, gun trafficking, and coercive interrogations by the CIA, have won international attention and numerous awards.

She is currently a Fortune magazine contributor and a Carnegie fellow, and has also written for Vanity Fair, Self, The Nation and other publications.  She formerly worked as a staff writer for the New York Times and the New York Observer.

Kristin Hussey and Christopher Capozziello: Hussey, a freelance journalist, and Capozziello, a freelance photojournalist, will team up to examine the dangers and costs of the highly lucrative “gray market” for prescription drugs, as well as the challenges faced by regulators, health care providers and patients in detecting the point at which medicine transforms from life-saving to life-threatening.

Since 2007, Hussey has reported on race, corruption, philanthropy, catastrophe, guns, politics, poverty, resilience, greed, pizza and prom dresses for the New York Times. She was previously a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal Online, The Capital in Annapolis, Md., and The Newsin Boca Raton, Fla.

Capozziello is an award-winning freelance photojournalist whose work illustrates his experience in penetrating cultures that rarely welcome outsiders. His photos have been published in the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, L’Express, the Dallas Morning News and the Wall Street Journal among others. His book, The Distance Between Us, explored his relationship with his twin brother Nick who has cerebral palsy.