This in from the Chicago Journalists Association

Chicago Journalists Association invites the public to join an audience of national and international purveyors of journalism for its annual awards celebration–where we will hear from keynote speaker Chris Fusco, Lifetime Achievement Award winner Better Government Association’s David Jackson and the 2020 Dorothy Storck Award finalists Daily Herald’s Burt Constable, Chicago Tribune’s Dahleen Glanton and ABC7 and Chicago Sun-Times’ Laura Washington–Friday, November 20, 8-9 p.m. presented via Zoom.

David Jackson, a Chicago native and Pulitzer Prize winner, is Senior Investigative Reporter at the Better Government Association. He joined BGA in August after 29 years at the Chicago Tribune. Jackson’s achievements are without question — a body of work that has consistently led to indictments and legislative reforms, and sparked broad civic conversations on racial inequities and brutal conditions in government programs serving the poor.

Jackson shared the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with colleagues at the Washington Post, for a five-part series examining the unusually high rate of police shootings in D.C. — an exposé more pertinent today than ever. So too is the subject matter of his four Pulitzer Prize finalist nominations with the Tribune — in 1996 for investigative reporting; in 2000 for national reporting; and again for investigative reporting in 2012 and 2015.

Jackson’s investigations often have focused on the injustices faced by children born in poverty. Other notable work has brought to light the staggering prevalence of sexual violence in Chicago Public Schools; revealed financial ties between organized crime figures and Chicago police brass; patient-on-patient rapes and assaults in Illinois nursing homes; food illness outbreaks at schools nationwide; the easy lives of international fugitives; rapes and prostitution in residential centers for troubled youth; mortgage swindles by Chicago street gangs; and the high price small towns pay for America’s cheap pork.

The Chicago journalism community was inspired — during this difficult year for journalism and our nation — by Jackson’s leadership role in the Chicago Tribune Guild’s valiant effort to find a civic-minded owner for the Tribune and its sister newsrooms, resulting in a poignant New York Times op-ed by Jackson and Gary Marx. When the Guild lost that battle, Jackson resigned to continue his commitment to systems reforms on behalf of society’s most vulnerable, at the BGA.

Earlier this year, Jackson established the Gary Marx Journalism Fund to both honor his longtime investigative reporting partner and trusted newsroom colleague, and cultivate the next generation of Chicago investigative reporters. The fund has given out $100,000 to date through journalism scholarships at Columbia College Chicago, paid BGA internships, and training through IRE/NICAR.

This year’s event is sponsored by Chase Bank. For free virtual tickets, RSVP to chicagocja@gmail.com. A Zoom link will be sent upon registration.

Headlining this event will be Keynote Speaker Chris Fusco, Founding Executive Editor of Lookout Santa Cruz, the flagship news outlet of Lookout Local, Inc., a network of local news and information sites recently launched by longtime industry analyst and Newsonomics Founder Ken Doctor. Fusco will provide industry perspective and speak on challenges impacting the industry. Fusco, who oversees all editorial operations at the Central California news startup, is a respected veteran of Chicago journalism who up until September was Executive Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. Fusco joined the Sun-Times as an investigative reporter in 2000, after working as a reporter for the Daily Herald and the Northwest Herald. He was named the Sun-Times’ Managing Editor in 2016, Editor-In-Chief a year later, and took the Executive Editor helm in May.

The November 20 event will also honor a highly respected columnist or op-ed journalist in Illinois or Northwest Indiana with the lauded $1,000 Dorothy Storck Award, recognizing the best commentary/op-ed of the past year.

Named for the late syndicated newspaper columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner who passed in 2015, the award was established by Storck’s family and her partner, University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor Dick Simpson, in 2017, to honor a columnist sharing Storck’s dedication, impact and commitment to craft.

This week the Chicago Journalists Association announced Daily Herald’s Burt Constable, Chicago Tribune’s Dahleen Glanton and ABC7 and Chicago Sun-Times’ Laura Washington as the 2020 Dorothy Storck Award finalists.

The Dorothy Storck Award is unique given that it annually honors two second-place winners, as the work of these journalists is too critical to judge slight differences in the style in which they give voice to the voiceless.

Previous winners include Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune (2019); Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times (2018); and Rex Huppke, Chicago Tribune (2017). Taking home finalist awards were Natasha Korecki and Scott Jacobs of online news sites Politico and The Week Behind (2017); Mick Dumke and Deborah Douglas of online news sites ProPublica Illinois and The Chicago Reporter (2018); Barry Rozner and Natalie Moore of The Daily Herald and WBEZ Radio (2019).

About the 2020 Dorothy Storck Award finalist

Burt Constable: Since joining the Herald in 1981 from the Washington (Iowa) Evening Journal, Constable has held positions from police reporter to copy editor. As a reporter, he covered beats from general assignment and sports to courts and crime, before becoming a full-time columnist in 1988, alongside legendary Chicago Columnist Jack Mabley.

Constable, who previously worked for the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal & Courier, grew up on a farm in Goodland, Ind., where he learned how to plant, cultivate, rotary hoe and be fearful of cows. He holds a B.A. in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School, and is the recipient of myriad awards, including CJA’s 2019 Sarah Brown Boyden Award for Best Feature. His work covering and interpreting tragedies has earned numerous citations, but he considers his biggest accomplishment being the first person to tout Barack Obama as future president way back in March of 2003.

Dahleen Glanton: Since joining the Tribune in 1989 from the Los Angeles Times, Glanton has held positions ranging from associate metro editor to Atlanta Bureau Chief. As a reporter, she covered some of the biggest stories of the past two decades, including Hurricane Katrina, President Barack Obama’s 2008 election and military families during the Iraq War. As a columnist, she addresses diverse subjects with a keen interest in encouraging dialogue on race, poverty and violence.

Recipient of myriad awards from groups such as the National Association of Black Journalists and Society of Professional Journalists, Glanton earned a 2017 finalist nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, cited by the Pulitzer Prize Board “for bold, clear columns by a writer who cast aside sacred cows and conventional wisdom to speak powerfully and passionately about politics and race in Chicago and beyond.” She holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia.

Laura S. Washington: A former mayoral press secretary who served under the late Mayor Harold Washington, Washington was Publisher/Editor of the nationally recognized investigative news outlet The Chicago Reporter from 1990 to 2002. She was previously an investigative unit producer at CBS-2-Chicago, and a correspondent with WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight.” She has written an op-ed column for the Chicago Tribune. Her Sun-Times column has been published since 2001. From 2003 to 2009, she served as Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor at DePaul University; and as Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics in 2015 and 2019.

Specializing in African-American affairs, local and national politics, social justice, race and racism, her myriad awards including two Emmys, the Studs Terkel Award, Peter Lisagor Award and the YWCA’s Racial Justice Award. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School, and was a founding inductee of Medill’s Hall of Achievement, as well as the Chicago Women’s Journalism Hall of Fame. Newsweek named her among its “100 People to Watch” in the 21st Century, and she serves on several boards, including The Field Museum and Block Club Chicago.

For more information, contact CJA at chicagocja@gmail.com or 773-789-9488.

The Chicago Journalists Association is a nonprofit, 501c3 organization boasting a storied membership of more than 300 active/veteran print, broadcast and digital journalists, media and communications professionals, associated journalism educators and college journalism students in Illinois/Northwest Indiana. CJA’s core mission is the advocacy and rewarding of journalistic excellence through prestigious journalism award competitions including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Daniel Pearl Award, Dorothy Storck Award and Sarah Brown Boyden Awards; professional development of its members through ongoing training and newsmaker forums on industry issues; and support and mentoring of the next generation of journalists, through scholarships.

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