Journalism senior Maya Cederlund won the AU SOC 2025 White House Correspondents’ Association Investigative Journalism Scholarship. A leader at The Eagle and the Investigative Reporting Workshop, she was recognized for her years-long Title IX investigation. The award includes $6,000, mentorship, and a ticket to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April. Judges included SOC alumn Dan Merica, and SOC Professors Whitney Harris Christopher, Amy Eisman, and Chris Halsne who oversees the awards.

Master's Journalism student Maria Lawson has been hard at work this semester! Maria is our investigative reporting fellow with ESPN. So far, she has covered a couple of breaking stories, an enterprise piece about
court storming and an investigative profile on a college basketball coach that just came out.

The Eagle’s advisory board has selected Walker Whalen as its editor-in-chief for the 2025-2026 academic year. Whalen is currently The Eagle’s investigations and data editor. They have been a member of The Eagle since their freshman year, starting as a news staff writer and later serving as an investigative reporter.  

SOC Journalism senior Gabe Castro-Root secured a prestigious New York Times fellowship covering travel. Gabe recently won a fully funded 10-day trip to Antarctica through SOC, traveling alongside renowned figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ann Curry, & Scott Kelly. He shared extraordinary photos and videos as well as insights on environmental journalism with students here at SOC.

More than two dozen Journalism students produced a three-hour special election newscast, broadcast live on YouTube with help from professors Terry Bryant, Chris Halsne, and Lynne Perri. Amy Eisman’s reporting class also covered Election Day, filing vignettes from polling places across the DMV, New York, and New Jersey.

Two graduate journalism students in Amy Eisman's Reporting of Public Affairs course sat inside the Supreme Court for oral arguments about Tennessee's transgender law. Four other grad students covered protests outside or worked the phones for a scene-setter and photo essay, all of which were posted on deadline to TheWash.

IRW interns Madeleine Sherer, Sophia Steele, Chaya Tong, and current AU senior Maya Cederlund are all credited for their extensive background research for a recently published book, "Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s." It’s part of a reporting and research partnership that began in 2021 with Charles Piller, a longtime investigative reporter for Science magazine. Piller broke several news stories about fraudulent research for Alzheimer's disease, which led to the publication of the book.

SOC Journalism Division students Tyler Davis, Sidney Hsu, Luna Jinks and Richa Sharma had their election story vignettes published in The Eagle. Student Lily Tierney had her story about undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children — known as Dreamers —  published in The Wash. These pieces were part of an assignment in Advanced Reporting taught by Professor Wendy Melillo.

Jill Olmsted took her undergraduate broadcast majors to WTOP last semester for a tour of the state-of-the-art facility in Friendship Heights. Students met with AU master's grad Julia Ziegler, WTOP’s director of news and programming. Other SOC alums at WTOP include former student Liz Anderson and local icon Neal Augenstein.

Journalism master’s graduate Zoe Watkins covered the People's March for Teen Vogue in January —her third byline with them. She first wrote for Teen Vogue in 2021 as part of Sherri Williams’ COMM 588 class’s Racial Reckoning project on the impact of George Floyd’s killing.

SOC alum Jeremy Egner is touring for his book Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso. Professor Jill Olmsted attended his D.C. talk.

2016 graduate Camila DeChalus has built a distinguished career in political journalism, currently serving as a CNN White House reporter. She credits her time at AU, particularly the broadcast journalism classes and internships for shaping her career. 

Multiple SOC Journalism alums, adjuncts, and faculty members attended the National Press Foundation awards dinner in February, including Professor Amy Eisman, an NPF judge and  Journalism adjunct Chris Adams. The big AU alum of the evening was former Eagle Editor-in-Chief Anne Godlasky, who is now president of the NPF. 

*If you are an SOC Journalism alumni, we'd love to hear from you. Please send an email to wharris@american.edu and you could be featured in the next alumni update!

The new Go-Go Museum & Cafe is now open and its chief curator is our own Natalie Hopkinson! The Washington Post and New York Public Radio covered the museum's ribbon cutting. Hopkinson also took her students on a pre-opening field trip.

Sherri Williams’ book Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television (Lexington Books/Bloomsbury) explores how digital activism reshaped representation in TV. Kirkus Reviews praised it as a “well-researched, convincing study.” Williams has book talks at Syracuse University, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, and several public libraries.

And Williams has also just been named as SOC’s Inclusion Officer. Williams’ work focuses on representation and social media advocacy. She collaborates with major newsrooms and has received top teaching awards, including NABJ’s Journalism Educator of the Year.

As part of the ongoing partnership with the Maine Monitor, the Investigative Reporting Workshop, or IRW, data editor Aarushi Sahejpal and data fellow Jinpeng Li created an interactive database tracking how counties across the state spent the $261 million they received from the American Rescue Plan Act. 

Lynne Perri stepped back into the Investigative Reporting Workshop as interim executive editor. Perri said she's excited to work with the current interns and graduate fellows and to rebuild a team at IRW. She and Professor Aarushi Sahejpal, IRW's data editor, are meeting with partners and potential partners who will co-report and co-publish stories in the coming months.

Jane Hall moderated an American Forum with White House photographer Anna Moneymaker on March 20th at SOC. Moneymaker, an SOC alum, captured some of the most defining political images, including the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pa.

On Jan. 25, Ros Donald and Aarushi Sahejpal presented research on local climate narratives at the D.C. Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency's knowledge forum. Their work examines gaps between how policymakers and the media discuss climate change and the lived experiences of D.C. residents.

Chris Halsne’s original screenplay, an adaptation of his novel To Suffer is Human, was selected by the U.K. Film Festival in London. The screenplay’s characters are based on animal rights extremists he met while reporting in Seattle.

Margot Susca's book, Hedged, was featured in Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal newsletter for prosecutors, law firms, and major media outlets. The book explores how private investment funds contributed to the decline of American newspapers. Since its January release, Susca has been featured in over 30 articles and podcasts, including The Washington Post and WNYC’s On the Media.

Jane Hall was interviewed on Fox News' coverage of immigration for an upcoming NPR All Things Considered segment. She also judged the local and regional news category for the Toner Prizes, which honor political reporting excellence.

John Watson was interviewed by Columbia Journalism Review about Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against CBS and 60 Minutes. He called it a strategic but baseless attack on journalism meant to generate anti-press sentiment. Watson also co-led an AEJMC conference on teaching the rule of law, addressing concerns about federal policies undermining legal principles.

Wendy Melillo received the National Organization of Italian American Women’s “Wise Woman” award for her achievements in journalism and mentorship. Gemma Puglisi, who won the award in 2016, served as the event’s master of ceremonies.

Jill Olmsted spoke to students at the Community College of Baltimore County about the creative use of sound in audio storytelling. The class uses her e-book, Tools for Podcasting, as part of its curriculum.

Olmsted also hosted the final episode of the It’s All Journalism podcast, founded by SOC alum and adjunct professor Michael O’Connell. Over 12 years, O’Connell produced 650 episodes featuring top journalists, including Margot Susca on private equity’s impact on newsrooms.