Associate Professor Lisa Armstrong and Graciela Mochkofsky, director of the Spanish-language Journalism Program, have been named the 2018-2020 Tow Professors.
The professorships were established by The Tow Foundation to enable the CUNY J-School to support the research of two teachers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in their fields.
The Tow Foundation, started in 1988 by cable TV pioneer Leonard Tow and his wife Claire, helped create similar programs at Brooklyn College and Barnard College.
Previous recipients on the J-School’s faculty were multimedia journalist Bob Sacha, documentary filmmaker Yoruba Richen, and investigative journalist and digital media strategist Miguel Paz.
Mochkofsky joined the J-School in February 2016 to launch its unique bilingual Spanish-language Journalism Program.
A native of Argentina, she has worked as a professional journalist in South America and the U.S. She has written for La Nación (Argentina), El País (Spain), The Paris Review, and The New Yorker. She is also the author of six books in Spanish.
Armstrong, who was promoted to associate professor last fall, has served with distinction as a Craft of Journalism, Narrative, and International Reporting professor since she joined the CUNY J-School in 2009.
She has produced stories for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Intercept and The Daily Beast, among others, and has reported from countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Philippines, and Haiti. Her work currently focuses on juvenile incarceration issues.