Stephen Shepard Investigative Reporting Prize

Deadline: Feb. 23, 2026 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 graduate who has produced the best investigative work in 2025. 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 2024, is eligible to self-nominate or nominate a classmate for this prize, provided the work was published in 2025 (in any medium).

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.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Feb. 23, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

IMPORTANT: If the work you're submitting is multi-bylined, the nominee's specific role in creating the work must be indicated in the "Why are you nominating this person for this award" section of the entry form below.

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

Work Samples

The work can be in any medium, and needs to have been published in 2024 and after the nominee has graduated.

Provide links to URLs for the work; attach PDFs or MP3 audio files.