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 Foundation. 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
Maud Beelman
Executive Editor, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
The founding executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and a professor of practice at the Cronkite School, Beelman is the former U.S. Investigations Editor for The Associated Press and the founding director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. She also directed investigations at The Dallas Morning News for 10 years and served as a domestic, foreign and war correspondent for AP. Beelman 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.
Lauren Mucciolo
Executive Producer, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Mucciolo is the executive producer of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and teaches multimedia storytelling to Cronkite graduate students. 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 OJA award, a SXSW Jury Prize and a Best Director prize from the Royal Television Society, among other honors.
Howard Center Faculty
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
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.
Gregg Leslie
Executive Director, First Amendment Clinic, ASU College of Law
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.
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism ASU Advisory Board
Board Members
Maud Beelman
Executive Director, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Talia Buford
Talent Development Director, ProPublica
Mike Canan
Director of Journalism Strategies, Scripps Howard Foundation
Liz Carter
President and CEO, Scripps Howard Foundation
Leonard Downie Jr.
Weil Family Professor in Journalism and Former Executive Editor of The Washington Post
Brian Lawlor
President of Local Media, The E.W. Scripps Company
Gregg Leslie
Executive Director, First Amendment Clinic, ASU College of Law
Ron Nixon
Global Investigations Editor, The Associated Press
Roy Perkins
Communications and Public Affairs Specialist
Ex Officio Members
Battinto Batts
Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Rebecca Blatt
Senior Associate Dean, Cronkite School
Kristin Gilger
Reynolds Professor in Business Journalism, Cronkite School
Jake Howard-Potter
Artist
Pam Howard
Emeritus Board Member, Scripps Howard Foundation
The Scripps Howard Foundation 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
Our Partners
