About Watchdog Writers Group
The Watchdog Writers Group is a nonprofit journalism fellowship program and teaching lab based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The WWG has a dual mission: to financially support authors as they write a deeply reported nonfiction book in the public interest, while simultaneously training the next generation of young reporters.
The WWG’s centerpiece program is a top-tier fellowship for established journalists who are writing a book. The program will give fellows an annual stipend of at least $50,000 for two years, supporting them as they step away from their day jobs to conduct the type of time-consuming, onerous reporting that falls through the cracks in over-stressed newsrooms.
Watchdog Writers Group funds the type of deep investigative journalism that is under-financed by the private marketplace. We do this by giving annual fellowships to authors, and by hiring students to be reporters alongside them. In doing this, the program hopes to revitalize newsgathering in the middle of the country about vitally important issues
The WWG will also partner each fellow with a graduate student at the Missouri Journalism School. The student will be a reporting assistant to the fellow, conducting a year-long apprenticeship that teaches them the best practices and ethics of investigative reporting. During the second half of their year-long program, each student will write and report a story of their own under the fellow’s mentorship.
The Team
THE AUTHORS, CLASS OF 2023
FELLOW
Caleb Gayle
Caleb Gayle is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and a professor at Northeastern University.
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FELLOW
Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh is a journalist who has covered socioeconomic class, politics and public policy for The New York Times, National Geographic, Harper’s, and many other publications.
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FELLOW
Alisa Roth
Alisa Roth is a contributor to Marketplace, NPR, and other outlets, who specializes in mental health, criminal justice and other social policy issues.
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FELLOW
Mya Frazier
Mya Frazier is writing a book that expands on her recent investigation for The New York Times Magazine into America’s housing crisis and the credit reporting system. During the fellowship, she will research the relationship between class mobility and the credit system.
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THE STUDENTS, CLASS OF 2023
Anna Colletto
Anna Colletto is a junior studying journalism and political science at the University of Missouri.
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Jocelyn Heimsoth
Jocelyn Heimsoth is a senior at the University of Missouri double-majoring in Journalism and Environmental Science, studying environmental journalism.
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Sophia Anderson
Sophia is a sophomore at the University of Missouri studying journalism and sociology.
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Evy Lewis
Evy Lewis is a senior at the University of Missouri double-majoring in journalism and English.
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Valerie Nava
Valerie Nava is a second year M.A. student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
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THE AUTHORS, CLASS OF 2022
FELLOW
Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh is a journalist who has covered socioeconomic class, politics and public policy for The New York Times, National Geographic, Harper’s, and many other publications.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Alisa Roth
Alisa Roth is a contributor to Marketplace, NPR, and other outlets, who specializes in mental health, criminal justice and other social policy issues.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Shoshana Walter
Shoshana Walter is writing a book that builds on her award-winning reporting for Reveal on unpaid work camps masquerading as rehab. Her book, “Untreated,” will chronicle the many problems plaguing the country’s addiction treatment system, how it got this way and how we could do better for the millions of people in the US struggling with addiction.
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FELLOW
Michael Grunwald
Michael Grunwald is working on a book for Simon & Schuster about how to feed the world without frying the world. It’s about the food we eat, the farms that make the food, the forests that get cleared to make room for the farms, and the search for technological and political solutions that can prevent us from eating the earth.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Mya Frazier
Mya Frazier is writing a book that expands on her recent investigation for The New York Times Magazine into America’s housing crisis and the credit reporting system. During the fellowship, she will research the relationship between class mobility and the credit system.
READ BIO
THE AUTHORS, CLASS OF 2021
FELLOW
Shoshana Walter
Shoshana Walter is writing a book that builds on her award-winning reporting for Reveal on unpaid work camps masquerading as rehab. Her book, “Untreated,” will chronicle the many problems plaguing the country’s addiction treatment system, how it got this way and how we could do better for the millions of people in the US struggling with addiction.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Michael Grunwald
Michael Grunwald is working on a book for Simon & Schuster about how to feed the world without frying the world. It’s about the food we eat, the farms that make the food, the forests that get cleared to make room for the farms, and the search for technological and political solutions that can prevent us from eating the earth.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Mya Frazier
Mya Frazier is writing a book that expands on her recent investigation for The New York Times Magazine into America’s housing crisis and the credit reporting system. During the fellowship, she will research the relationship between class mobility and the credit system.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Pamela Colloff
Staff writer, New York Times Magazine
and Senior Reporter at ProPublica
Writing a book about the criminal justice system and jailhouse informants.
READ BIO
THE AUTHORS, CLASS OF 2020
FELLOW
Pamela Colloff
Staff writer, New York Times Magazine
and Senior Reporter at ProPublica
Writing a book about the criminal justice system and jailhouse informants.
READ BIO
FELLOW
Patricia “P.J.” Huffstutter
Agribusiness Reporter
at Reuters News
Writing a book about the farm debt crisis in rural America.
READ BIO
FELLOW
John Eligon
New York Times National Correspondent
Developing a book project about the Black Lives Matter movement.
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DIRECTOR
Christopher Leonard
Executive Director
of the WWG
Writing a book about a company at the heart of American political and economic affairs.
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THE STUDENTS, CLASS OF 2022
Mavis Chan
Mavis Chan is a senior majoring in journalism and political science at the University of Missouri.
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Teghan Simonton
Teghan Simonton is a graduate student at the University of Missouri studying investigative reporting.
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Beatrice Bankauskaite
Beatrice Bankauskaite is a Fulbright grantee and a graduate student at the University of Missouri studying documentary and photojournalism.
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Claudia Rivera-Cotto
Claudia Rivera-Cotto is a graduate student at the University of Missouri in data and investigative journalism.
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Jana Rose Schleis
Jana Rose Schleis is a second year M.A. student in the Missouri School of Journalism. She’s studying investigative journalism, government reporting and public policy.
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Regan Mertz
Regan Mertz is a graduate student studying Documentary and Photojournalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.
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Kelly Dereuck
Kelly Dereuck is a graduate student researching the use of public records to report on private equity.
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THE STUDENTS, CLASS OF 2021
THE STUDENTS, CLASS OF 2020
Steven Garrison
Working with Pamela Colloff to investigate the criminal justice system in Missouri and
other states.
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Peng “Fion” Chen
Working with P.J. Huffstutter to build a unique, searchable database of farm debt and loan defaults across America.
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Kelly Dereuck
Working with Christopher Leonard to research the modern history
of U.S. banks.
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Recent Stories
Watch here for new stories regularly.
“False Witness”
The New York Times Magazine