Dart Names 14 Ochberg Fellows

The Dart Center has announced the recipients of the 2017 Ochberg Fellowship, a program that deepens journalists' reporting of violence, conflict and tragedy. This year’s Fellows include outstanding senior and mid-career journalists in all media, representing nine nations and five continents.

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism announced today the recipients of the 2017 Ochberg Fellowship.

Established in 1999 for journalists seeking to deepen their knowledge of trauma science and improve their reporting of traumatic events, the Ochberg Fellowships are awarded to outstanding senior and mid-career journalists working in all media who specialize in covering violence, conflict and tragedy on every scale, from street crime and family violence to natural disasters, war, conflict and genocide.

“The newly-chosen 2017 Ochberg Fellows - reporters, photographers and newsroom leaders from nine countries — are all innovators in illuminating the impact of violence, conflict and tragedy. In an unsettling year they have brought insight, compassion and profound journalistic skill to some of the most wrenching, polarizing and challenging issues of our time,” said Bruce Shapiro, the Dart Center’s executive director. Through seminars with leading experts in trauma science and journalism practitioners, the weeklong Fellowship offers journalists a unique opportunity to explore the many dimensions of psychological trauma; to discuss ethical and craft challenges raised by their work; and to forge relationships with colleagues who share their interests and commitment.

The 2017 Dart Ochberg Fellows are:

  • Alberto Arce – Editor, The New York Times en Español, Mexico City, Mexico
  • Anne Barnard – Beirut Bureau Chief, The New York Times, Lebanon
  • Isaac Bailey – Freelance Journalist, South Carolina, USA
  • Jessica Benko – Freelance Journalist, New York, USA
  • Thomas J. Brennan – Journalist and Founder, The War Horse, North Carolina, USA
  • Ana Cardenes – Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Agencia EFE
  • Olivia Carville – Investigative Journalist, New Zealand Herald, Auckland
  • Ismail Einashe – Freelance Journalist, London, United Kingdom
  • Lisa Krantz – Staff Photographer, San Antonio Express-News, Texas, USA
  • Irene Nasser – Freelance Journalist, Jerusalem
  • Lynne O’Donnell – Kabul Bureau Chief, The Associated Press, Afghanistan, USA
  • Nick Schifrin – Special Correspondent, PBS NewsHour, Washington, DC, USA
  • Didi Schanche – Deputy International Editor, NPR, Washington, DC, USA
  • Narendra Shrestha, Photojournalist, European PressPhoto Agency, Kathmandu, Nepal

 

BRIEF BIOS OF THE 2017 FELLOWS:

Alberto Arce is the editor of The New York Times en Español and a freelance journalist based in Mexico City. Prior to joining The New York Times, he was the Mexico Correspondent for The Associated Press. Before that, he was AP’s Honduras Correspondent, where he also covered El Salvador. Since 2004, Arce has covered conflicts in Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine as a freelance cameraman and writer for Spanish and international media. He has also written investigative narratives for Guatemala’s Plaza Pública. Arce has been recognized with the 2009 Anna Lindh Award for his coverage of Cast Lead Operation from the Gaza Strip, a 2012 Rory Peck Award for his coverage of the battle of Misrata in Libya, and a 2013 Overseas Press Club Award for his work in Central America.

Anne Barnard is Beirut Bureau Chief for The New York Times, where she has covered the Syrian crisis and its impact on individuals and communities since 2013. Prior to this post, Barnard was a reporter on the Times Metro Desk where she primarily covered New York City. During that time she did several foreign stints in Russia, Libya, Lebanon and Haiti. Before joining the Times in 2007, Barnard was The Boston Globe’s Middle East Bureau Chief from 2005 to 2007, and their Iraq Bureau Chief from 2003 to 2005.

Barnard has also worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Moscow Times. She has won several awards for her journalism including Columbia’s Meyer Berger Award for in-depth reporting on ordinary lives, and the New York Press Club’s Heart of New York Award.

Isaac Bailey is a freelance journalist whose work has been published by Esquire Magazine, Politico, CNN.com, Longreads and Nieman Reports, as well as several dozen newspapers and online publications throughout the United States. He was a 2014 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Bailey has written about issues ranging from real estate and politics to criminal justice and left-lane driving. He has won numerous writing awards, including the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism and others from the South Carolina Press Association, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the National Association of Black Journalists and the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. His first book, “Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don’t Eat Watermelon in Front of White People)”, was released in 2009. Bailey’s second book will be published by Other Press in the fall of 2017.

Jessica Benko is an independent print and radio journalist. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Wired, This American Life, and elsewhere. Formerly a producer for WNYC's Radiolab and science editor for WNYC's Studio 360, she often pursues stories where the practice of science aims to address human suffering, in areas of medicine, psychology, poverty, public health, or appropriate technology. Her recent reporting topics include humane prison reform, epidemic prevention in the aftermath of Ebola, and the impact of extremist violence in East and West Africa.

Thomas J. Brennan is a journalist and the founder of The War Horse, the only nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigating the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. He studied at Columbia as a 2015 fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, focusing on magazine writing. His passion for writing about war, trauma, and loss guides The War Horse to share stories about the lives of men and women killed overseas since 9/11. 

Before coming to Columbia, Brennan was a sergeant in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the First Battalion, Eighth Marines. He was awarded a Purple Heart and is the recipient of the 2014 American Legion Fourth Estate Award for his military reporting with The New York Times and The Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Brennan is a 2016 Nonprofit Leadership Fellow with the Atlantic Council's Veterans Take Point initiative and is also co-writing a book, Shooting Ghosts, which will be published with Penguin Random House in 2017. 

Ana Cardenes is Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Spanish news Agency EFE. She works in print, video and radio, and focuses primarily on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including reporting from Gaza during the 2012 war. Previously, Cardenes was EFE’s Tehran Bureau Chief and a correspondent in Jerusalem, Jakarta and New Delhi, both for EFE and as a freelancer for various media outlets, such as CNN in Spanish and German TV DW. Over the last fifteen years, Cardenes has been covering conflict, natural disasters and their aftermath, and is often in contact with victims of violence and catastrophe.

Olivia Carville is an investigative journalist with The New Zealand HeraldShe regularly covers stories about trauma, violence, mental health and inequality, and was one of the lead reporters in the deadly 2011 earthquake that hit her hometown of Christchurch. Carville previously worked on the investigations unit at The Toronto Star in Canada, where her in-depth exposé on sex trafficking led to a $10 million funding boost for victims. Her stories have influenced legislation in both New Zealand and Canada, and she has been nominated for and awarded eight major national media awards in both countries.

Ismail Einashe is a freelance journalist based in London. He has written about the Sicilian Mafia, the plight of African migrants in Italy, radicalisation in Europe and human rights and conflict in Africa for publications including Prospect Magazine, The Guardian, The International Business Times, Mail & Guardian, Index on Censorship, Welt-Sichten and The White Review. Einashe has worked for BBC Radio Current Affairs and presented on BBC Radio. He is also a contributing editor at Warscapes, an online magazine that provides a lens into current conflicts across the world.

Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News in Texas. Her awards have included the Pictures of the Year International (POYi) Community Award, POYi Third Place Newspaper Photographer of the Year (2010 & 2015), World Press Photo portrait, Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Feature Photography (team entry), and the ASNE Community Service Photojournalism Award. Krantz is a three-time NPPA Region 8 Photographer of the Year. Her project “A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity” was screened at Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, France, and exhibited at the Festival della Fotografia Etica in Lodi, Italy. Before joining the San Antonio Express-News, Krantz was a photojournalist for the Naples (FL) Daily News.

Irene Nasser is a Peabody-Award winning freelance producer and journalist based in Jerusalem. She is an expert on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and works across the Middle East as a news field producer and documentary filmmaker. For the past decade, she has covered the Middle East and regional issues for Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera America, CNN, Vice on HBO, Channel 4 UK, The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine and many others.

Raised in both the Middle East and the United States, Nasser is keenly aware of the experiences of people from different backgrounds and searches for stories that help tell the bigger picture of a complex reality. Over the past few years she has covered the rise in Palestinian-Israeli tensions and the 2014 Gaza war. She has also reported on the war in Syria from the Syrian borders of Jordan and Turkey, as well as the refugee crisis across Europe and the Balkans.

Lynne O’Donnell is Kabul Bureau Chief for The Associated Press, leading the agency’s coverage of Afghanistan at a time of transition and turmoil. Prior to joining AP, O’Donnell served as Kabul Bureau Chief for Agence France-Presse from 2009 to 2010. She won the 2010 Human Rights Press Award for a series of reports on the conditions faced by Afghan women. Previously, she was the Asia features editor for the French agency. She also covered major breaking news stories across the region for AFP, including terrorist attacks and natural disasters, as well as the 2008 Olympic Games. In the 1990’s, O’Donnell spent six years reporting on Chinese economic issues as a commodities specialist with Reuters, and was Beijing-based China correspondent for The Australian newspaper, where her beat included Mongolia and North Korea. She also covered the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, reporting from Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, including the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq war.

In 2007, she authored “High Tea in Mosul: the True Story of Two Englishwomen in Iraq,” telling the story of how ordinary Iraqi people lived under Saddam Hussein’s rule, through the eyes of expatriate women married to Iraqis. 

Nick Schifrin is an American foreign correspondent who has reported from more than 30 countries since 2007. He is a special correspondent at PBS NewsHour, where he has created weeklong, in-depth series from Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Ukraine and the Baltics. In August and September he also served as NPR's Jerusalem correspondent, reporting from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank for Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

From 2008 to 2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. From 2012 to 2013, he was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem, where he led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 Gaza War. Schifrin has won several awards for his work including an Emmy, Overseas Press Club, National Headliners and Edward R. Murrow awards. He is teaching a foreign policy seminar as a visiting fellow at the Clinton School of Public Service, and he is a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Didi Schanche is NPR's Deputy International Editor, managing coverage of breaking news, issues of international policy and features from around the world. She has a particular mandate to oversee NPR’s coverage from Africa and Latin America.

A journalist since 1981, Schanche began her career as a freelance correspondent for The Jerusalem Post in Cairo, Egypt. In 1982 she was hired by The Associated Press as a reporter based in Montgomery, Alabama. After two years, she moved to the foreign desk at AP headquarters in New York, and then two years later was sent to Nairobi, Kenya, to cover East Africa. After seven years covering East Africa, Schanche moved to AP's Middle Eastern headquarters in Nicosia, Cyprus to edit copy from reporters and stringers throughout the Middle East. In 1995, she and her family returned to the United States. After several years as Assistant Foreign Editor at The Washington Times, Schanche made the jump from print reporting to radio in 2001 and joined NPR.

Narendra Shrestha is a photojournalist based in Nepal. His work has been published in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph UK, Independent UK, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times London, Die Welt and National Geographic, among others. Shrestha joined the European Press Photo Agency in 2003 after working for various national daily and weekly magazines in Nepal, where he documented the Maoist insurgency in Nepal (1996-2005) and the people’s uprising in 2006.

Shrestha has won numerous national and international awards, including the Award of Excellence for Disaster and Disease Coverage at the China International Press Photo Contest. He is a graduate of the International Institute of Journalism in Berlin.