April 22, 2026
Four accomplished writers will join Columbia Journalism School for the 2026-2027 academic year as the next group of Spencer Education Journalism Fellows who will work with researchers and mentors at the university to produce significant works of education journalism.
This class of 2027 brings immense skills as well as diversity of professional background and storytelling form to the fellowship, which was launched with Spencer Foundation support 19 years ago to enhance education journalism through deep research.
The group includes residential fellow Liz Bell, a journalist for EdNC, a nonprofit news site focused on education in North Carolina, who will study lessons learned from the first attempts at universal child care in the United States.
There will be three non-residential fellows. Madison Hopkins, a freelance investigative reporter who most recently worked for the Better Government Association, will explore caregiver burnout in families raising autistic children. Lee Hawkins, an author and podcast creator who spent many years on the staff of The Wall Street Journal, will investigate the persistence and legacy of corporal punishment in American public schools. And Gabriela Goitía-Vázquez, a writer and award-winning high school educator in Miami-Dade Public Schools, will create a narrative atlas documenting the relationship between climate disaster and educational disruption in the United States.
A distinguished board of scholars and journalists selected the winners this spring from a record number of applications after a month of careful review. The Spencer Foundation awards each fellow with project expenses plus a stipend ($85,000 residential, $43,000 non-residential). Furthermore, the fellows receive research and journalistic support at the Journalism School as well as throughout the university.
“These diverse journalists, writers and educators collectively come with two Pulitzer nods and years of rich and relevant experience both on the education beat and leading America’s classrooms. I am confident that they will bring dynamic ideas and vision to the Spencer fellowship community, the Journalism School, and the field of education journalism writ large,” said Sarah Carr, director of the Spencer Fellowship, who, as a fellow in 2010-11, reported “Hope Against Hope,” about New Orleans schools. “Their timely and creative projects were chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants. We look forward to welcoming them in the fall to a network of over 50 fellows who have produced impactful books, documentaries, magazine articles, podcasts, and more.”
For more on the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship, visit: https://spencerfellows.org