

About the
Our Mission
The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University is a ground-breaking, hands-on experience in which students learn how to produce deeply researched watchdog journalism that professional partners want to share with their audiences. The Howard Center is based at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and is supported by a grant from the Scripps Howard Fund. Through the training and education it provides and the projects it produces, the Howard Center is developing the next generation of investigative reporters.
Howard Center Leadership

Mark Greenblatt
Executive Editor, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Professor of Practice
Greenblatt is a three-time Peabody award-winner who teaches how to report and collaborate on high-impact multimedia investigations. Prior to joining the Cronkite School he worked as senior national investigative correspondent in Washington D.C. for Scripps News, where for more than a decade he led investigations and mentored early-career journalists. Greenblatt’s reports have earned the duPont-Columbia Award, the I.R.E. Medal, the Livingston Award, multiple national Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, the national Emmy for investigative reporting and he has twice been named a finalist for Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize (and has served on its five-member jury). He currently serves as the elected Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the world’s leading investigative journalism training organization.
Contact: mark.greenblatt@asu.edu

Lauren Mucciolo
Executive Producer, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Professor of Practice
Mucciolo is the executive producer of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and teaches multimedia storytelling and investigative reporting at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She has made more than a dozen broadcast and digital films for PBS Frontline, many of which are co-productions with British broadcasters. Mucciolo is a five-time Emmy nominee who has won two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, an ONA award for storytelling innovation, a SXSW Jury Prize and a Best Director prize from the Royal Television Society, among other honors.
Contact: lauren.mucciolo@asu.edu
Additional Howard Center Faculty and Advisors

Leonard Downie, Jr.
Weil Family Professor of Journalism
Downie is the former executive editor of The Washington Post. Downie led the newspaper to more Pulitzer Prizes than any other editor in history. A founding member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, he specialized in investigative reporting throughout his career and teaches Cronkite courses on accountability journalism.

Sarah Cohen
Professor and Knight Chair in Data Journalism
Cohen came to the Cronkite School from The New York Times, where she served as data editor. She won a Pulitzer Prize at The Washington Post, where she also was data editor. Cohen was president of Investigative Reporters & Editors and served as the Knight Professor at Duke University. She teaches data journalism at Cronkite.

Ken Foskett
Edith Kinney Gaylord Visiting Professor in Investigative Journalism
Foskett is an award-winning investigative reporter and editor who teaches the Techniques of Investigative Reporting skills class in Cronkite’s MA in Investigative Journalism program. Prior to coming to Cronkite, he spent 32 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including work as a Washington correspondent, investigative reporter, senior editor for investigations and leader of the organization’s internship program. He is the past board chair of the Atlanta Press Club and president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. Foskett is author of a 2004 biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and he is a graduate of Yale College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Maud Beelman
Collaborations Editor, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Beelman was the founding executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism from January 2019 to mid 2023. She is the former U.S. Investigations Editor for The Associated Press and was the founding director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Beelman also directed investigations at The Dallas Morning News for 10 years and served as a domestic, foreign and war correspondent for AP. She has received numerous awards over a nearly four-decade career, including the George Polk, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists and Online Journalism Awards.

Gregg Leslie
Executive Director, First Amendment Clinic, ASU College of Law, and Professor of Practice, Cronkite School of Journalism
Leslie was previously a staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit association that provides legal assistance to journalists, and served as the organization’s legal defense director for 17 years. Leslie serves on the governing committee of the Communications Law Forum of the American Bar Association.

Battinto Batts Jr.
Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Battinto L. Batts Jr. is the dean, a professor and an award-winning journalist and educator with deep experience in philanthropy and nonprofit administration. He previously served as director of journalism strategies for the Scripps Howard Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his support for investigative reporting’s future helped lead to the creation of the Howard Center. Batts holds a doctorate in higher education management from Hampton University, a master’s degree in media management from Norfolk State University and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism ASU Advisory Board
Board Members
Mark Greenblatt
Executive Editor, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Talia Buford
Assistant Managing Editor, ProPublica
Mike Canan
Director of Journalism Strategies, Scripps Howard Fund
Liz Carter
President and CEO, Scripps Howard Fund
Leonard Downie Jr.
Weil Family Professor in Journalism and Former Executive Editor of The Washington Post
Brian Lawlor
President, Scripps Sports
Gregg Leslie
Executive Director, First Amendment Clinic, ASU College of Law
Ron Nixon
Vice President, News and Head of Investigations, Enterprise, Partnerships and Grants, The Associated Press
Roy Perkins
Communications and Public Affairs Specialist
Ex Officio Members
Battinto Batts
Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Maud Beelman
Collaborations Editor, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Rebecca Blatt
Senior Associate Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Jake Howard-Potter
Artist
Pam Howard
Emeritus Board Member, Scripps Howard Fund

The Scripps Howard Fund supports philanthropic causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company and the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on excellence in journalism. The Fund has granted millions of dollars to Arizona State University and the University of Maryland to establish the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism at their respective journalism schools.
Awards
2023
EPPY, 1st Place, Best community service project/reporting (Fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
2023
EPPY, 1st Place, Best investigative/ enterprise video (Fewer than 1 million unique visitors)
2023
EPPY, Runner-up, Best college/university-produced community or Niche Website
2023
EPPY, Runner-up, Best collaborative college/university & professional website
Our Partners











