Meet the Inaugural Recipients of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize

A new journalism award announced Wednesday -- the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, from the Heising-Simons Foundation -- was awarded to Jaeah Lee, whose work includes covering criminal justice and equality, and Valeria Fernández, who covers immigration in Arizona. The Prize awarded the two freelance journalists includes an unrestricted cash award of $100,000 each, for “demonstrated excellence in long-form, narrative, or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the present American landscape.” Lee is an independent journalist and a 2017 Senior Fellow at Brandeis University’s Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. The New York University grad is also a 2017 Restorative Narrative Fellow with Images & Voices of Hope. Lee’s work has been featured in major national outlets, including VICE News, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Wired,Christian Science Monitor, Global Post, and MSNBC. She was previously a staff reporter at Mother Jones, where she wrote about criminal justice, and income and racial inequality, among other subjects. Fernández has been reporting on Arizona’s immigrant community and the many angles and faces of the immigration debate for more than 15 years. The Arizona State University grad is also a 2017 Fellow for the Adelante Initiative of the International Media Women Foundation. She currently freelances in multiple mediums, including the Phoenix New Times, The Guardian, PRI’s Global Nation and PRI’s The World, CNN en Español, Radio Bilingüe, and Al Jazeera English. Born in Uruguay, she began her career as a journalist in the Gannett-owned newspaper La Voz. Congrats, ladies! More here.