IMG awarded grant to cover economic impact of Haitian immigration in Springfield, OH

Eight veteran journalists have bee the latest recipients of the McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism. Each of the winning projects will receive a grant of up to $15,000.

The new McGraw Fellows will explore subjects ranging from the development of ocean-based carbon capture and the impact of increased private equity ownership of hospitals, to the politicization of international students and its effect on the future of higher education.

The McGraw Fellowships, an initiative of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, were created in 2014 to support in-depth stories that “Follow the Money.” The Fellowships enable experienced journalists to produce ambitious investigative or enterprise stories on critical issues related to the global economy, finance and business. Nearly 100 journalists have since won McGraw Fellowships.

The new McGraw Fellows are:

• Jason Buch: A freelance journalist based in Texas, Buch will report on infrastructure projects related to trade with Mexico, one of the U.S.’s top economic partners, during the Fellowship.

Buch has more than 15 years’ experience converging the U.S./Mexico border. He spent much of his career with Hearst newspapers, where he was the immigration and border affairs reporter for the San Antonio Express-News until 2018. His work has been recognized by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the Conferencia Latinoamericana de Periodismo de Investigación and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

• Lauren Caggiano and Wedly Cazy: Caggiano is a contributing reporter for Hub Springfield. Cazy covers Haitian communities in Ohio for The Haitian Times. Together, they will examine the economic impact of federal deportation actions on the town of Springfield, Ohio.

Caggiano is a freelance practitioner of solutions journalism. She previously served as News Editor for Input Fort Wayne. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and French from the University of Dayton.

Cazy travels around Haitian communities to produce in-depth stories about immigration policy, fashion, and culture that humanize immigrants. A graduate of Ohio State University and Georgetown University, he is a recipient of several scholarships and grants, including from OSU’s Center for International Business Education and Park National Bank Next Generation Challenge.

• Hannah Levintova and Ashley Cleek: Levintova is the special projects editor at Mother Jones and Cleek is an investigative reporter and producer at Reveal — both publications of the Center for Investigative Reporting. They will use the Fellowship to report on the growth of for-profit healthcare, and its impact on both patient care and the financial viability of hospitals.

Levintova’s investigative reporting focuses on uncovering financial wrongdoing in areas that impact daily life, from housing to healthcare, with a particular emphasis on private equity and Wall Street. Her magazine features have received honors from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Society for Features Journalism and others. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, where she was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business Journalism. Prior to Mother Jones, she worked on the news desk at NPR, at the Washington Monthly and did a stint as a FOIA officer at a federal agency. She is based in Providence, RI.

Cleek has worked with This American Life, VICE, NPR and Latino USA. Prior to joining Reveal, she helped develop and launch Vice News’ flagship podcast, Vice News Reports. Her work has won a national Edward R. Murrow Award, a Gracie Award, an International Documentary Association Award and a Third Coast award, and she was a 2020 Livingston Award finalist. She has reported stories across the American South, Turkey, Russia and India. She’s based in New York.

• Erika Hayasaki: An independent journalist based in Southern California, Hayasaki will examine American universities’ dependence on international tuition dollars, how this has reshaped local economies and racial divides, and what the politicization of international students means for the future of higher education.

Hayasaki’s reporting has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, WIRED, The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Guardian, The Cut & New York Magazine and others. She is the author of two narrative nonfiction books: “The Death Class” and “Somewhere Sisters.” Formerly a national writer for the Los Angeles Times, she teaches in the Literary Journalism Program at the University of California, Irvine.

• Tracie McMillan: McMillan is a freelance journalist based between Detroit, MI and Brooklyn, NY. She will report on how recent changes in U.S. health care affect patients and providers.

McMillan is an investigative reporter and author covering America’s multiracial working class and the author of two books, “The White Bonus” and the New York Times bestseller, “The American Way of Eating,” which won the Sidney Hillman Book Prize. She has reported on junk fees for The Guardian, written about hunger for The New York Times and National Geographic, and won a James Beard Foundation Journalism award for her reporting on farm labor in The American Prospect. A 2013 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, her work has been recognized by the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, the Casey Medals, World Hunger Year and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

• Alexandra Talty: A freelance journalist based in Asia, Talty will report on ocean carbon removal technologies and their economic, regulatory and environmental implications.

With a focus on investigating stories where business meets the sea, Taltry’s work appears in The New York Times, The Guardian and WIRED, among others. She has been awarded past fellowships and support by the Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network, Journalismfund Europe, Knight-Wallace and the National Press Foundation for Food and Agriculture. Her 2023 investigation into the American seaweed industry received a SABEW honorable mention and an ASJA honorable mention. In 2018, her Playboy investigation into LGBTQ+ rights in Lebanon won an LA Press Club award, and in 2015 she was the founding editor-in-chief of StepFeed in the Middle East.

More than 140 journalists working across a wide array of subjects applied for the latest round of the Fellowships. Each winning project receives funding up to $15,000. In addition to financial backing, the McGraw Center provides Fellows with editorial guidance and assistance in placing stories with media outlets. The winners were selected through a competitive process.

The McGraw Center would like to thank Ziva Branstetter (ProPublica), Arlyn Gajilan (Reuters), Diana Henriques (freelance book author), Andrew Lehren (Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism), Alex Lescaze (Sidney Hillman Foundation), Ryan Nave (Reckon Media), Ricardo Sandoval-Palos (PBS) and Judy Watson (Newmark J-School) for their assistance with evaluating the Fellowship proposals.