Introducing the 2026-27 Local Investigations Fellows

We are proud to announce the next class of the Local Investigations Fellowship. The program, led by Dean Baquet, a former executive editor of The New York Times, gives journalists the opportunity to produce signature investigative work focused on the state or region they're reporting from. Their reporting will be published by The Times and made available free for co-publication by local newsrooms.

"This is the program's fourth fellowship class, and we're thrilled to work with them on producing important accountability reporting from their communities," said Dean. "Their work will add to the fellowship's strong roster of investigative journalism from regions across the country, and we're excited to help foster this next generation of investigative reporters."

The new fellows are from Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. They are:

This group joins Mukta Joshi and Rosemary Westwood, who were introduced as the first local investigations fellows of the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center created in collaboration with The New York Times.

Investigative reporting that was produced through the fellowship has received national recognition. In 2025, The Times, in collaboration with The Baltimore Banner and with support from Big Local News, won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for an investigation into the deadly opioid crisis. The reporters won the 2024 George Polk Award for Local Reporting and the 2025 Frank A. Blethen Award for Local Accountability Reporting and were finalists for the 2025 Livingston Award. A yearslong examination of abuses by sheriffs departments in Mississippi was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting and the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2024 and 2026. The team was also awarded the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism, the First Amendment Coalition's Free Speech and Government Award and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Tom Renner Medal for Outstanding Crime Reporting

To support the data work of our fellows, The Times will continue collaborating with Big Local News, a data-sharing journalism program based at Stanford University, will be working again with our fellows on obtaining and analyzing data for their projects and providing ongoing training on investigative data techniques.

In addition to producing signature investigative work, fellows will receive frequent training opportunities to learn investigative reporting techniques, travel to our New York offices and attend conferences for additional training and mentorship. Times editors will also visit fellows in their reporting regions.

Applications for the 2027-28 group of fellows open on July 1. Journalists interested in a fellowship based in Mississippi or Louisiana can visit this application form year-round.