In March, the Stigler Center will welcome nine world-class journalists from across the globe for an intensive 12-week program of professional development at Chicago Booth.
Launched in March 2017, the Stigler Center’s Journalists in Residence (JIR) Program provides a transformative learning experience for print and broadcast journalists from around the world. It aims to shape the next generation of leaders in political economy reporting.
The program will take place over approximately 12 weeks at the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park campus, during which selected participants will audit classes, participate in events, collaborate with peers, and socialize with the university’s greatest scholars.
Michael Ertl (Germany) – BBC
Michael Ertl is a senior producer and editor for the BBC. Over the past decade, he has covered international news from the war in Ukraine to Venezuela’s economic crisis, Brexit and the fall of Afghanistan. He was based in Washington DC as news desk editor and Brussels as senior radio producer. Previously, he led output teams on the BBC’s flagship radio news & current affairs show Newshour. His passion for audio storytelling and global news led him to London after studying and working in his native Germany and in Spain.
Cheyenne Haslett (United States) – ABC News
Cheyenne Haslett is a policy reporter at ABC News in Washington, D.C. She covers stories from the White House, the agencies and Capitol Hill. She reports mostly on education and health policy, like President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, abortion policy after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, and the federal response to COVID-19. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, Cheyenne was a campaign embed for ABC News, following Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s bid for the Oval Office. Before ABC News, Cheyenne worked at WNYC in New York and the Hartford Courant in Connecticut
John Liu (Taiwan) – The New York Times
John Liu is a journalist for The New York Times, covering China, Taiwan, and technology based in Seoul, South Korea. His work explores the interplay between technology and politics with a particular focus on the supply chain and semiconductor sectors against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and China. He also writes about topics such as disinformation, Chinese censorship, and propaganda. Before joining the Times, he reported on Taiwan and Myanmar from the respective countries.
Daniel Lutaaya (Uganda) – News 24/7
Daniel Lutaaya is an award-winning investigative journalist from Uganda. Lutaaya’s work spans impactful reporting about politics, the economy, and health service delivery. He has investigated and exposed corruption in government service delivery and is one of Africa’s pioneer journalists investigating and reporting about illicit financial flows. Daniel is the founder of the online news service News 24/7. He wields over a decade of newsroom experience, driving political, environmental, and socio-economic conversations. Lutaaya founded and is the Executive Producer of the Eco Film Festival, leveraging journalism and visual storytelling to count the economic and human cost of climate change igniting awareness and action. His investigative work has earned prestigious awards including 3 Uganda National Journalism Awards, the Nobert Zongo Award for African Investigative Journalism, a One Young World Journalist of the Year and a Thomson Reuters Young Journalist of the Year nomination. Lutaaya is a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Thomson Reuters Wealth of Nations fellow, an Inter-Government Authority on Development fellow an alumnus of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, the African Institute for Investigative Journalism, Drake University and Victoria University.
Neil Marks (Guyana) – News Room Inc.
Neil Marks has worked in the print and broadcast media in Guyana for over 20 years, covering everything from politics, business, health, the environment, and beauty pageants. He currently functions in multiple capacities, including director, producer and anchor, at News Room Inc., Guyana’s most recognized multi-media news organization. In 2020, Neil’s investigative journalism and his relentless coverage of the attempts by the former government to rig the elections is credited with ensuring democracy prevailed after a battle of five months. Neil has contributed to several international publications, and he has won many awards, including from the United Nations Correspondents Association. He has taken part in reporting fellowships with the organizations such as the International AIDS Society and OXFAM, and he has participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program of the US State Department. Neil once served as President of the Guyana Press Association. He holds a Master’s degree in International Journalism from City, University of London. Neil is intrigued by world cultures and has travelled to many countries on all continents, except Antarctica – but he plans to get there soon! Neil speaks the local Guyanese language, English and Mandarin Chinese.
Nicholas Megaw (United Kingdom) – Financial Times
Nicholas Megaw is US capital markets correspondent at the Financial Times, leading the FT‘s coverage of the US stock and derivatives markets. He was previously retail banking correspondent and a breaking news reporter based in London. Nicholas joined the FT in 2015 from the BBC. He graduated from Oxford University and was a Harlech Scholar at Harvard University.
Linda A. Thompson (Belgium) – Freelance
Linda A. Thompson a Belgian freelance journalist specialized in EU policy, tech regulation and legal activism. She served as a special correspondent for Bloomberg Law between 2016 and 2020, covering corporate tax developments in the Benelux countries. Since 2020, she has covered the impact of EU regulatory decisions on law firms and global companies for Law.com International. Her work has also been published by Deutsche Welle, International Politics & Society, EUobserver and Equal Times. She is a 2012 graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and a former B.A.E.F. Hoover Foundation Brussels Fellow. She has advocated for the interests of freelance journalists in several membership organizations since 2019 and co-founded The Friendly Freelancer, a supportive newsletter for creative freelancers, the following year.
Latha Venkatesh (India) – CNBCTV18
Latha Venkatesh is Executive Editor at CNBCTV18, India’s premier business news channel, where she specializes in covering India’s central bank, financial markets, macroeconomic data and policy and the banking sector. Over the years, she has come to be recognized as one of the keenest watchers of the Reserve Bank of India and a respected commentator on banking sector issues, money markets and macroeconomic trends. She has been a business journalist for 30 years and has specialized in covering all markets – stocks, currency debt and commodities. She has also had stints in all major streams of media having worked in Economic Times and Dow Jones newswires for five years each. Latha graduated in Economics and Politics and has a doctoral degree in Political Science.
Afşin Yurdakul (Turkey) – Independent
Afşin Yurdakul is an award-winning Turkish journalist and news anchor. During the last decade, she hosted prime-time daily news programs and served as chief foreign editor at a leading private news network in Turkey. She reported extensively on global affairs and has conducted interviews with prominent Turkish and international figures. Afşin wrote about Turkey and the Middle East for a variety of publications including The New York Times and Foreign Policy, among others. She moderated panels at international conferences such as the World Economic Forum’s Middle East and Davos meetings. Afşin holds an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. In 2018, she was selected as the inaugural Robert Long Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
