Stephen B. Shepard Prize for Investigative Reporting

Deadline: Feb. 28, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Established in 2016, the Stephen B. Shepard Prize for Investigative Reporting honors a deserving graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

This prize will be awarded to a Newmark J-School alum who has produced the best investigative work in 2024. The honoree will receive $5,000, generously funded by The Tow Foundation. The award is named for Founding Dean Stephen Shepard.

Any student who has graduated from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY from any of our programs, from the classes of 2007 to 2023 is eligible to self-nominate or nominate a classmate for this prize, provided the work was published in 2024 (in any medium) and after the student graduated.

RULES:

  • All nominations must be sent in using this submission form.
  • The submission form must include your own name and contact info (as the nominator) and the name and contact info of the nominee. For self-nominations, that means putting your own name and contact info in both spots on the form.
  • The submission form must include links or attachments to the work you’re nominating.
  • If you’re submitting a series, include links/attachments to the individual parts on the same submission form. If you run out of space on the form, submit it as is and email a follow-up note with the remaining links to AlumniOffice@journalism.cuny.edu, with Shepard Prize 2025 in the subject line.
  • If you’re submitting multiple works by the same nominee—and those works are not part of a series—please send in a separate submission form for each.
  • If the work you’re nominating is multi-bylined, the nominee’s specific role in creating the work must be detailed in the “Why are you nominating this person for this award” section of the entry form below.
  • If the links or attachments you’re including in the submission were published in a language other than English, please provide a translation of the work for consideration.

The winner will be chosen by a committee that includes Newmark J-School faculty and staff. Nominees’ work will be judged on subject importance, originality, reporting, writing and presentation.

Deadline: Nominations are due by Feb. 28, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Please email AlumniOffice@journalism.cuny.edu with any questions.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

2024—Karen Shakerdge ’15

2023—Joseph Darius Jaafari ’16

2022 — Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky ’18

2021 — Roxanna Asgarian ’11

2020 — Shane Dixon Kavanaugh ’10

2019 — Allen Arthur ’16

2018 — Hannah Rappleye ’10 and Lisa Riordan Seville ’10

2017 — Mike Reicher ’09