O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism
Backed by Marquette University, the O'Brien Fellowship program helps news professionals dig deep while mentoring student journalists.
The program honors Marquette alumni Alicia and Perry O'Brien. Their daughter, Patricia Frechette, and her husband, Peter, donated $8.3 million in 2012, to create the fellowship. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a co-founder and partner.
The O’Brien Fellowship accepts applications from journalists using print, digital, or visual mediums. Applicants may also produce news or opinion content. Journalists producing opinion content, however, including editorial writers and columnists, should inform, and support, their views and commentary with independent, in-depth investigative reporting.
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A Unique Journalism Fellowship
- Report and produce an in-depth public service journalism project on a regional, national or international topic.
- Receive a $75,000 salary stipend and additional support.
- Fellows traditionally are in residence, but we are now taking remote or partial remote applications along with full-residency arrangements. The O’Brien newsroom is housed at Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication near downtown Milwaukee and the Lake Michigan shore.
- Publish or broadcast the project through your home news organization or, in the case of independent journalists, another outlet.
- Integrate Marquette’s best journalism students into your projects as reporters and researchers.
- Help identify a journalism student for a university-funded summer internship at your news organization or other publisher.
Marquette University challenges students and staff to Be The Difference by working with the community for the greater good. Marquette, as a Catholic, Jesuit institution, has educated journalists for more than 100 years with this mission.
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O'Brien selects five journalists for 2026–27 Fellowships
The O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism awarded investigative reporting fellowships to five U.S. journalists: Matt Stroud of Pittsburgh, Devi Shastri of Milwaukee, PrincessSafiya Byers of Milwaukee, Kelly Meyerhofer of Milwaukee, and Anna Baydakova of New York.
“This talented group of journalists was selected from the largest applicant pool in O’Brien’s 14-year history,” Jeffery Gerritt, director of the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, said. “The diversity of their projects reflects both the future of journalism and O’Brien’s traditional mission of advancing justice and equity.”
O'Brien Fellows receive $75,000 — with additional stipends for research, travel, and housing — to complete nine-month investigative projects running from August 2026 through May 2027. Independent journalists Stroud, Shastri, and Baydakova will examine, respectively, defense spending and surveillance technology, children's public health, and surveillance through artificial intelligence in schools. Meyerhofer, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter, will uncover how grassroots people in Wisconsin are fixing problems in their communities, state, and nation. Byers, a reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, will investigate youth homelessness.
The Latest O'Brien-Backed Journalism
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Milwaukee's Lead Crisis
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Wrongful Convictions, Doubt, and Reform in Detroit
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Vacancies at Milwaukee Public Schools
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The Right to Read
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The Flight of Banks
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A New Prescription
O’Brien Fellow, Eddie Allen researched a series of high-profile Detroit cases that raise questions about wrongful convictions, unreliable testimony, and systemic failures within the criminal legal system. Through court records, expert analysis, and firsthand accounts from incarcerated individuals and their supporters, their reporting highlights the human toll of disputed convictions and the long fight for exoneration. The series also examines the role of conviction integrity units and legal reforms, exploring whether meaningful change is possible for those seeking justice.
Marquette Students Reyna Galvez, Sofie Hanarahan, and Mia Thurow collaborated with Eddie on the series.
Photo by Robyn Ussery/ DETROIT METRO TIMES
Works published to date:
September 30, 2025
Do conviction integrity units really work? - Detroit Metro Times
October 30, 2025
From a life sentence to a life of purpose - Detroit Metro Times
December 1, 2025
A Detroit man’s wrongful conviction became the blueprint for sweeping criminal justice reform
December 9, 2025
Witness admits to being ‘pathological liar’ about Detroit firefighter’s death
December 12, 2025
Expert testimony casts doubt on 2008 arson case that sent Detroit man to prison
January 9, 2026
Detroit fire official undermines 2008 murder case in surfaced video
February 3, 2026
After two-month hearing, Detroit judge weighs chance at freedom for Mario Willis
February 24, 2026
Supporters believe Temujin Kensu is a ‘political prisoner’ - Detroit Metro Times
For nearly 40 years, Temujin Kensu said he is innocent. Will he ever be free? - Detroit Metro Times
April 20, 2026
He blew the whistle on a toxic dump — and says he paid for it with his freedom
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Rory Linnane examined vacancies at Milwaukee Public Schools, how they impact students, and how to solve them. Marquette Students Gabriel Sisarica and Chesnie Wardell collaborated with Linnane on the series
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story addresses the staff vacancies at Milwaukee Public Schools and the impact of those vacancies. A Journal Sentinel analysis found that the vacancies dispropotionately affect students with disabilities, Black students and students from low-income families. With around 11% of staff positions being unfulfulled at any time, MPS expects to save about $70 million that can be spent elsewhere.
The second installment, published in March 2025, investigated how MPS failed to monitor lead paint hazards likely resulting in the lead poisoning of a Milwaukee student. With budget cuts and staff vacancies, the distrcit has fallen behind on maintenance. The district plans to complete inspections of its oldest buildings by the end of May, and additional schools to be inspected after that.
The third installment, published in May 2025, analyzed why hundreds of MPS staff left in recent years and reported how the school district is responding.
Works published to date:
February 20, 2025
Milwaukee Public Schools saves millions on vacant jobs. It balances the budget, but students pay the price.
March 26, 2025
Milwaukee Public Schools lost control of widespread lead paint hazards. Here's how it happened.
May 1, 2025
We analyzed why 887 staff left MPS in recent years. Here's what they said.
Hundreds of staff have told MPS why they resigned. What is the district doing to respond?
O'Brien Fellow Sarah Carr investigated reading disparities in schools and the actions people are taking to close them. This series breaks down how these disparities often play out through a child's life and what approaches are being taken to change that narrative.
Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST
O'Brien Fellow Sari Lesk investigated the struggles that Milwaukee entrepreneurs, many of them racial minorities, face when trying to access funding to start or scale their business. Many small business owners said they found themselves rejected by traditional banks.
Photo by Kenny Yoo / MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL
O'Brien Fellow Guy Boulton investigated the social determinants of health across the country, including here in Milwaukee. The story breaks down how social services can be more important to health than access to medical services despite the U.S. health care system accounting for a fifth of the economy.
Photo by Mark Hoffman / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
Washington Post wins Maynard Justice Award
Washington Post reporters Dana Hedgpeth (left), Sari Horwitz (right), and The Post staff have won the 2025 Dori J. Maynard Justice Award for “Indian Boarding Schools,” a searing five-part series based on an 18-month investigation of the widespread sexual abuse of Native American children by Catholic priests, brothers, and sisters. Judges called the entry haunting, beautifully done, and probing.
The Dori J. Maynard Justice Award, sponsored annually by the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University in Milwaukee, honors social justice reporting that illuminates ignorance, systemic racism, intolerance, negligence, and inequality.
This is the second straight year The Washington Post has won the Dori J. Maynard Award. One of 10 Poynter Institute Journalism Prizes, the award honors the memory of Dori J. Maynard, a former ASNE board member and advocate for diversity in journalism and newsrooms. The award comes with a cash prize of $2,500.
Contest winners are expected to visit Marquette University this fall, in person or virtually, to present their series as part of the Burleigh Media Ethics Lecture series.
"This work represents the best tradition of public service journalism, the legacy of Dori J. Maynard, and the mission of the O'Brien Fellowship to promote justice and equality," Jeffery Gerritt, director of the O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, said Monday. "It illuminates a shameful chapter in U.S. history that continues to traumatize Indigenous peoples. We're honored to welcome to Marquette the journalists who produced this outstanding work."
The United States government operated Indian Boarding Schools, where thousands of students died, for roughly 150 years, from 1819 to 1969. Last year, U.S. President Joe Biden apologized to all Indigenous Americans for the harm caused by federal Indian boarding schools that separated Native children from their families and tribal communities.
Hedgpeth, a Native American journalist who has worked for The Washington Post for 25 years, is an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina. She has covered Native American issues, Pentagon spending, and the U.S. Defense industry, as well as local governments, courts, and rail and bus systems. Her honors include the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Writing with Post colleague Robert O’Harrow Jr.
Horwitz, an investigative reporter who covers criminal justice, has won numerous national awards. She shared in four Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of the child welfare system, police shootings, the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Horwitz is the author of the series “Justice in Indian Country” and co-author of the book “American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry.”
Full winning entry:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/sexual-abuse-native-american-boarding-schools/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/american-indian-boarding-schools-history-legacy/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/native-american-deaths-burial-sites-boarding-schools/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/10/25/biden-apology-indian-boarding-schools/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/06/14/catholic-church-indian-boarding-schools/
