Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism welcomes 2025 fellowship class

The Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at Ohio University will welcome its largest fellowship class in more than a decade when 28 journalists from around the globe come to campus in March for a week of education in artificial intelligence.

The 19 U.S. journalists and nine international journalists represent some of the most prestigious news outlets in the world. Global services such as the BBC, Agence France-Presse, Voice of American, Al Jazeera and The Associated Press will be represented as well as news outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Deutsch Welle, the Boston Globe, USA Today and CNN.

U.S. journalists from Ohio will join those from regional outlets in Indiana, Washington, Alaska, New York, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Alabama, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. International journalists will represent nine nations, including Sweden, Germany, Poland, Pakistan, Malta, Lithuania, Qatar, Mexico and India. This is the first time journalists from Malta, Qatar and Lithuania have been selected.

The professional journalists will be on campus March 24-28 and have residence at the Ohio University Inn while attending workshops in Schoonover Center and Alden Library.

“This fellowship in AI produced a record number of applications for Kiplinger since coming to OU in 2019. We had more than 450 professional journalists apply, which is a statement as to how AI is impacting journalism on a global scale,” Kiplinger Executive Director Kevin Z. Smith said. “These 28 fellows come from varied background, platforms and cultures, but face the same challenges of understanding how to integrate AI into their work.”

For the first time, Kiplinger is allowing college faculty to attend. Three journalism professors from Ohio, New York and Malta will be on hand to take part in training.

“Looking at the rapid progression of AI, it’s understandable that journalism faculty should be on the technological cutting edge for the benefit of the next generation of journalists,” Smith said. “It seemed appropriate to allow academics who applied to have this opportunity.”

While at OHIO, the fellows will participate in workshops on writing and editing in AI, AI and audio, fake spotting AI generated content, AI’s use in data journalism as well as the legal and ethical bounds of AI use.

Fellows will also take part in the Scripps College’s Dean’s Advisory Council spring gathering  and meet with journalism and communication students while on campus. Receptions with the fellows are being planned for two of the days they will be on campus.

U.S. fellows selected, include:

• Suhail Bhat, USA Today; New York, New York
  Thomas Boni, WKRG-TV; Mobile, Alabama
• Brandon Bounds, WBNS, Columbus, Ohio
• Courtney Bublé, Law360; Washington, D.C.
• Len Clark, LTC Media; Portage, Indiana
• Gina Dvorak, WOWT-TV, Omaha, Nebraska
• Mion Edwards, freelancer; Washington, D.C.
• Eric Halperin, NBC4; Columbus, Ohio
• Kasim Kashgar, Voice of America; Washington, D.C.
• David Kirichenko, Frontline; Seattle, Washington
• Hanna Krueger, The Boston Globe; Boston, Massachusetts
• Kendra Langlinais, CNN, Dillion, Colorado
• Hagit Limor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Aaron, Mok, freelancer; Queens, New York
• Thomas Reintjes, freelancer; Brooklyn, New York
• Sage Smiley, KYUK Radio; Bethel, Alaska
• Giovanny Vega, El Vocero; San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Dustin Volz, Wall Street Journal; Washington, D.C.
• Mehrunnisa Wani, City University of New York; New York City

International fellows include:

• Rosemarie Calleja, Institute for The Creative Arts; Mosta, Malta
• Swasti Chatterjee, Boom Live; Kolkata, India
• Faras Ghani, Al Jazeera, Doha, Qatar
• Oreg Grigorenko, 7x7 Horizontal; Vilnius, Lithuania
• Carl Fridh Kleberg, SVT-TV; Stockholm, Sweden
• Rashid Ali Panhwer, The Associated Press; Karachi, Pakistan
• Roxana Romero, Agence France-Presse; Mexico City, Mexico
• Aleksandra Stefanowicz, BBC; Warsaw, Poland
• Kathrin Wesolowski, Deutsch Welle; Berlin, Germany

The Kiplinger Fellowship is the flagship event for the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism, founded in 1972 through a donation to Ohio State University by the Kiplinger Foundation. The first fellowship was held in Columbus in 1973. The program moved to Ohio University into the Scripps College of Communication and E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in 2019. Since coming to OU, each year Kiplinger selects a critical reporting theme to focus its fellowship. Past fellowships have explored reporting on climate change, political discourse and immigration and migration. Kiplinger also travels abroad and is active in training groups of international journalists, visiting 12 counties in the past 10 years.