NEFAI 2019

About the New England
First Amendment Institute

Journalists from a variety of media and all six New England states will gather Sept. 22-24 in Boston to learn the latest investigative and database reporting techniques and public records access skills. The fellows chosen for this ninth annual New England First Amendment Institute reflect today’s diverse news media and come from daily and weekly newspapers, television and radio stations and online publications. Learn more about previous institutes here.

Supporters

This year’s institute is made possible by the generosity of Northeastern University, the Academy of New England Journalists and Boston University.

Other supporters of NEFAC for this year include Hearst Connecticut Media Group,  Barr Foundation, The Boston Globe and WBUR-Boston.

Locations

Northeastern University, Boston

The institute will be held at Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Mass. For more than 40 years, the university’s School of Journalism has combined academic excellence with practical experience, preparing students to be analytical thinkers and successful communicators. Here’s more information on Northeastern University. A campus map can be found here.

Maggiano’s Little Italy and Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant

Dinner on Sept. 22 will be served at Maggiano’s Little Italy, 4 Columbus Avenue in Boston. On Sept. 23, there will be dinner and a presentation at Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant, 425 W. Broadway in South Boston.

DoubleTree By Hilton Boston Bayside

Lodging will be available at the DoubleTree By Hilton Boston Bayside, 240 Mt. Vernon Street in Boston. Please notify NEFAC by Sept. 5 if a hotel room is needed.

Application Materials — (Closed)

• Application and Recommendation Form

Institute Materials

• Schedule
• Program
• Daily Evaluations

NEFAI 2019 News

• Daily News’s Laura Damon Selected as New England First Amendment Institute Fellow
• Investigative Reporter Scott Higham of Washington Post to Speak at NEFAI 2019
• NEFAC Announces Journalism Fellows for 9th Annual New England First Amendment Institute
• Zeninjor Enwemeka of WBUR’s Bostonomix to Join the Former Fellows Panel at NEFAI 2019
• Educator, Former Journalist Maria Hiaasen to Speak at Ninth Annual Institute
• Miami Herald Editor Casey Frank to Open Ninth Annual New England First Amendment Institute
• 2019 New England First Amendment Institute Applications Available; Deadline August 9

Speakers and Presenters Include

Day One – Keynote Speaker
Casey Frank | Senior Editor of Investigations at the Miami Herald
Frank has worked at the Miami Herald since 1980 in a variety of capacities. He previously worked for the Tampa Tribune and Coffeyville (Kansas) Journal and co-founded the weekly Lincoln Park News on the North Side of Chicago. In addition to editing Perversion of Justice, on the travails of Jeffrey Epstein, he was the Herald’s editor or co-editor on the Panama Papers, which shared a Pulitzer winner with the International Center for Investigative Journalists and McClatchy, as well as Fight Club (on Florida juvenile justice) and Dirty Gold, Clean Cash (on the plunder of the South American rain forest by gold miners) both Pulitzer finalists over the past two years.

Day Two – Featured Speaker
Scott Higham | Investigative Reporter at The Washington Post
Since joining The Post in 2000, Higham has examined the deaths of foster children, waste and fraud in Homeland Security contracts, the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, and conflicts of interest on Capitol Hill. He has also investigated the offshore banking industry; allegations of misconduct against Bill Cosby, Brian Williams and Roger Ailes; and fraudulent and wasteful spending in Iraq and Afghanistan by a Washington-based nonprofit. In addition, he examined fatal police shootings and the civil consequences for families and municipalities, the hunt for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, Marco Rubio and his family connection to a cocaine kingpin, the rise of the Islamic State and its use of U.S. social media, and the murder of Chandra Levy, among many other projects. He is currently one of the lead reporters on an investigation into the drug industry and the distribution of opioid pills.

Day Three – Featured Speaker
Maria Hiaasen | Educator, Former Journalist
Hiaasen, widow of Capital Gazette shooting victim Rob Hiaasen, earned a bachelor of arts in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982. There, she directed the news staff at the university’s student radio station while working part-time on the news staff at WQDR-FM in Raleigh, N.C. She contributed to “Our Forgotten Warriors,” WQDR’s 1981 George Foster Peabody Award winning series on Vietnam veterans. Hiaasen left broadcasting for print journalism and joined the Palm Beach Post in the late 1980s. There, she worked as a police and general assignment reporter in the paper’s south county bureau. A former freelancer for the Baltimore Sun, she has taught English for 16 years, most recently at Dulaney High School in Timonium, Md., which selected her as the school’s nominee for teacher of the year in 2016. For eight years, she led Dulaney’s student newspaper, The Griffin, a Columbia Student Press Association Gold Medal winner. In 2017, she was recognized as a teacher mentor by the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Program for her impact on an exemplary broadcast journalism student at College Park.

Journalism Fellows

Pictured above, left to right

Social Media and Photos

• #NEFAI2019 Twitter Feed