Revelatory social justice reporting at
Northwestern University Medill School
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Syd Stone is a recent graduate from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. While in school, Stone served as managing editor of Northwestern’s award-winning student-run newspaper, The Daily Northwestern. Stone previously served as a reporter for the Medill Investigative Lab, where she collaborated with her peers to publish a story on the opioid epidemic in the Pacific Northwest in The Washington Post.
Stone has worked for The Boston Globe and Chicago Sun-Times, where she covered everything from national politics to zoo animals. In addition to her background in print journalism, Stone enjoys thinking creatively about storytelling. She worked as managing editor for Lakefill Magazine, Northwestern’s live storytelling event, an offshoot of The California Sunday Magazine’s Pop-Up Magazine. You can read more of her work here.
Michael Lee is a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and an alumnus of the Ohio State University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Lee has previously been an intern at local metro paper the Columbus Dispatch and NPR affiliate WOSU, and is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association, where he participated in its Voices program. You can see more of his work here.
Adam Rhodes is a Chicago-based investigative reporter focusing on civil rights, criminal justice and health care access. Rhodes’ work has highlighted police reform, anti-Black racism in Chicago nightlife, and the history of torture by police in Chicago. Before Medill, Rhodes was a general assignment reporter at legal newswire Law360 in New York City.
Cadence Quaranta is a junior at Northwestern University majoring in Journalism and International Studies, with a minor in History. Quaranta is the Features Editor for North by Northwestern, a student-run news magazine. Previously, Quaranta worked for the Daily Northwestern as its global outreach and title IX beat reporter. She also interned at ABC2 as a reporter and anchor for Teen Perspective News, a monthly newscast. Most recently, she joined the Medill Investigative Lab as a reporting intern. Quaranta is interested in both investigative and international journalism. She speaks Chinese and Spanish and hopes to use her language skills to report globally. View her work here.
Chloe Hilles is a third-year student at Northwestern University majoring in journalism and political science. Chloe is a contributing politics reporter for Northwestern’s online publication, North by Northwestern. Her work combines her dual interests in journalism and politics, including topics such as the Supreme Court, criminal justice and investigative reporting. Chloe has also worked as an intern for the Blake Horowitz Law Firm in Chicago and volunteers weekly with Books and Breakfast, a morning reading and tutoring program for Evanston elementary students. View her work here.
Eleanna Eimer is a junior at Northwestern University majoring in Journalism with minors in both Business Institutions and Legal Studies. Eimer has served as an Identities Editor and contributing politics reporter for Northwestern’s online publication, North by Northwestern. Last summer, she worked at WGN-TV as an intern for the “Chicago’s Best” show. Most recently, she interned for the Medill Investigative Lab. Her interests lie at the intersection of political and investigative reporting. View her work here.
Brett Haensel is a senior at Northwestern University studying journalism, business and the classics. He has served as a writer and podcast co-host for Northwestern’s online sports blog, Inside NU, and has worked as a communications assistant for the University of Chicago Crime and Education Labs over the past two years. Brett also spent a summer interning at Raleigh’s News & Observer, where he wrote profiles on local sports figures and covered the Carolina Hurricanes. He’s interested in both sports and investigative journalism and hopes to one day work at the intersection of the two. Read some of his work here.
Emma Edmund is a third-year studying journalism and environmental policy and culture at Northwestern University. She has served as the Summer Editor, Print Managing Editor and City Editor of The Daily Northwestern, covering everything from fossil fuel divestment to the covid-19 response at the University and in Evanston. She looks forward to finding new reporting beats and exploring them during her remaining time at Medill, including covering aspects of this year’s election. You can view some of her work here.
Zack Cherkas is a junior at Northwestern University studying journalism and business. He has enjoyed discovering new ways to combine these two disciplines, most notably by writing a portfolio of client success stories for a healthcare consulting firm in the Bay Area, and conducting research and analysis for emerging startups in Israel. Most recently, he interned for the Medill Investigative Lab.
Michael Korsh is a junior at Northwestern University studying journalism with a minor in psychology. He currently serves as the Print Managing Editor of the national award-winning student newsmagazine North by Northwestern. There, he also served as an associate editor and senior features editor, and reported on topics including the financial aid system and the school’s transition to a third-party ride-share service. He also has worked as an editorial intern for Moment Magazine, which covers Jewish life in North America. He’s interested in long-form reporting and data-driven investigative journalism. View his work here and here.
Catherine Buchaniec is a junior studying journalism, political science and international studies at Northwestern University. Buchaniec has served as creative director of Northwestern’s award-winning student-run newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, and spent time as a campus writer covering Greek life and the federal work-study program. While studying abroad in France, the Chicago native worked as a photographer covering protests, including the global Youth Climate Strike and the Yellow Vest Movement. The Chicago native has also reported on Iranian politics for The Organization for World Peace and previously wrote for Men’s Health magazine. She intends to pursue a career in national security journalism.
Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff is a senior at Northwestern University studying journalism with a double major in international studies. He has served as a writer, section editor and senior editor at the student magazine, North by Northwestern. Dan has worked for the Medill News Service as a congressional reporter examining environmental issues and the New York Daily News covering politics and social media. While studying in Jordan, he worked with a New York Times stringer reporting on financial issues faced by rural Jordanian women and as a translator for the Arabic news outlet Radio al-Balad. He has also reported for The Washington Post Metro section, covering covid-19 and race and reckoning. Dan also knows Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew, and has just started to learn German, languages which he intends to use in future reporting. Read some of his work here.
Alexa Mikhail is a senior at Northwestern University, studying journalism with a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is a producer, reporter and anchor for the Northwestern News Network, where she has covered LGBTQ+ homelessness in Chicago and the democratic primary debates in Illinois’ Third District. Alexa also has international reporting experience. She traveled to Havana, Cuba and reported on the taxi system and tourism. Alexa worked as a production intern for ABC News’ Good Morning America, where she worked with producers on health pieces and wrote for their digital platform. She is also a recent member of the Medill Investigative Lab and has written for The Washington Post. You can find some of her work here.
Daniel Konstantino is a fourth-year Medill student majoring in journalism and economics, and pursuing a master’s degree in journalism. Daniel has worked as a production assistant at Iwerks & Co. He has contributed to reporting and photography for the Washington Post’s coverage of the opioid epidemic in native communities. He is the director of Camp Kesem at Northwestern University, a free summer camp and year-round support system for children impacted by a parent’s cancer. He was previously the workshop chair for the advocacy group Masculine Allyship, Reflection, and Solidarity, which promotes healthy masculinity through dialogues on campus and in fraternities. His interest lies at the intersection of long-form and multimedia journalism. His work can be viewed here.
Copy Editor: Bernadette Kinlaw, Medill alum (1988)
Medill Reports Fellow: Rikki Li
Graphic Designer: Worth Chollar
Debbie Cenziper is an associate professor and the director of investigative reporting at Medill. She also oversees the Medill Investigative Lab. Besides teaching, Cenziper is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and nonfiction author who writes for The Washington Post. She spent three years at The George Washington University before joining the faculty of Medill.
Over the years, Cenziper’s investigative stories have exposed wrongdoing, prompted Congressional hearings and led to changes in federal and local laws. In her classes at Medill, Cenziper and her students focus on social justice investigative reporting.
Cenziper has won dozens of awards in American print journalism, including the Robert F. Kennedy Award for reporting about human rights and the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from Harvard University. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 at The Miami Herald for a series of stories about corrupt affordable housing developers who were stealing from the poor. A year before that, she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for stories about dangerous breakdowns in the nation’s hurricane-tracking system.
Cenziper is a frequent speaker at universities, writing conferences and book events. Her first book, “Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality,” (William Morrow, 2016) was named one of the most notable books of the year by The Washington Post. Her second book, “Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in America,” was released by Hachette Books in November 2019.
Cenziper is based on Medill’s Washington, D.C. campus, working with undergraduate and graduate students on investigative stories.