CAMBRIDGE, MA — The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, located at the Harvard Kennedy School, is pleased to announce the appointment of its fall 2016 fellows.
“In the midst of a rapidly changing media, politics and policy environment both domestically and abroad, each of these Shorenstein Fellows is uniquely suited to lead the search for solutions to some of the vexing problems facing society,” said Nicco Mele, the Center’s Director. “We eagerly anticipate the results of their research and hope that they will shed some light – and hope – on where we go from here.”
Joan Shorenstein Fellows spend the academic semester researching, writing, participating in events and interacting with students, faculty and the Harvard community. Since 1986, the fellowship program has welcomed more than 250 accomplished journalists, scholars and politicians from around the globe.
These distinguished leaders in journalism, technology and political communication will be joining Bob Schieffer, Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow, who remains in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis throughout the 2016 election season.
Joan Shorenstein Fellows
Derrick Z. Jackson is an essayist for The Boston Globe and a climate and energy writer for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He was a 2001 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary, a two-time winner of opinion awards from the Education Writers Association and a nine-time winner from the National Association of Black Journalists. He is the co-author and photographer of Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock, published in 2015. Besides his nature photography, his images of Barack Obama were exhibited by Boston’s Museum of African American History. While at the Shorenstein Center, Jackson will write about race and climate change.
Erie Meyer is a founding member of the United States Digital Service, where her team was charged with improving public-facing digital services for federal government agencies. Previously, she worked on the President’s Open Data Initiatives, served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. CTO and worked on the founding team at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Meyer is a co-founder of Tech Ladymafia and was named one of Forbes’ 2014 “30 under 30” for technology. While at the Shorenstein Center, Meyer will explore the role of data in the future of civic life, media and politics.
Markus Prior is Associate Professor of Politics and Public Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Prior is the author of Post-Broadcast Democracy, which examines how broadcast television, cable television and the internet have changed politics in the U.S. The book was the winner of the 2009 Goldsmith Book Prize, and the 2010 Doris Graber Best Book Award. While at the Shorenstein Center, Prior will work on a book about how people develop interest in politics.
Yeganeh Rezaian is a journalist who covered Iranian political, social and economic news from 2009-2014, until she and her husband, Jason Rezaian, were detained and held in Tehran’s Evin Prison. Prior to her imprisonment, Rezaian had served as an Iran correspondent for Bloomberg News before accepting a position at The National, Abu Dhabi’s English language newspaper, in 2013. In 2014 she received a GlobalPost Ground Truth fellowship for reporting on youth unemployment in Iran. While at the Shorenstein Center, Rezaian will write about the dangers faced by women and journalists in Iran.
Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow
Bob Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and was a part of CBS News for 46 years. He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News” for 23 years, became the network’s chief Washington correspondent in 1982 and was named the anchor and moderator of “Face the Nation” in 1991. Within these roles he has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon and moderated three presidential debates. Throughout his career Schieffer has written four books, won numerous awards and covered every presidential race and nominating convention since 1972. He will be in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis for three semesters, throughout the 2016 election season. During his time on campus Schieffer will meet with students and faculty, speak at various events for the Harvard community and participate in Shorenstein Center activities.
About the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
The Shorenstein Center is a research center based at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a mission to study and analyze the power of media and technology and its impact on governance, public policy and politics. Research, courses, fellowships, public events and engagement with students, scholars and journalists form the core of the Center.
Media contact: Nilagia McCoy: 617-495-2233, nilagia_mccoy@hks.harvard.edu
Communications Manager, Shorenstein Center
