James Asher (Washington editor) joined Injustice Watch after serving as Washington bureau chief for the McClatchy Company, where Jim led the work of 40 reporters and editors in Washington and around the world. In that role, Asher served as editor on the Panama Papers investigation, guiding for the McClatchy Newspapers the project that was awarded, together with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the 2017 Pulitzer for explanatory journalism. The McClatchy bureau set a standard for independence in Washington, winning numerous other national awards for journalistic excellence. A native of Utica, New York, Jim has worked from five newspapers on the East Coast, including The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun. On four other occasions, investigations Jim edited in Washington and in Baltimore were selected as Pulitzer Prize finalists. Jim holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Syracuse University and did postgraduate work in finance, economics, and accounting in the MBA program at Temple University.
Pamela Cytrynbaum, veteran Chicago journalist and educator, joins Injustice Watch as Senior Editor. Cytrynbaum served four years as executive director of the Chicago Innocence Center, an investigative journalism nonprofit that explored and exposed wrongful convictions. She co-founded the Justice Brandeis Law Project at Brandeis University, where she served as associate director of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. While teaching at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Pam was particularly proud, as a Medill alum, to win the student-voted award in 2012 for best teacher. Pam covered criminal justice issues for the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune before becoming a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune, where she also was the late-columnist Mike Royko’s “legman.” Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Oregonian, Psychology Today and Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Camille Darko (reporting fellow) received her bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies and African American Studies in June from Northwestern University.
Olivia Exstrum (intern) is a senior majoring in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Olivia has reported for the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Reporter, and The Star in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has also worked at the Medill Justice Project and served as investigations editor and managing editor of the student-run paper The Daily Northwestern. Olivia is interested in prison cultures, mental health on college campuses and in the criminal justice system and issues concerning rural America.
Marc Farinella (executive director) is the former chief operating officer for the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Throughout his career, Marc has held senior leadership roles in government and politics. He served as chief of staff to former Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and was the North Carolina State Director for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 1990, he founded the consulting firm Farinella & Associates where he served as a senior strategic communications and campaign management consultant for U.S senators and governors. Earlier in his career, Marc was a public policy analyst in the office of the Illinois Attorney General and the Illinois Comptroller.
Sam Hart (graphics fellow) received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in June from Northwestern University, where he was editor-in-chief of the digital magazine North by Northwestern, interned for Rick Tulsky’s Medill Watchdog program, and freelanced for Texas Monthly.
Anna Hazard (intern) received her bachelor’s degree in art history at the University of Minnesota and is pursuing a master’s degree in data science and public policy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School, where she has served as web developer and data visualization editor for the Chicago Policy Review.
Stephen Henderson (contributing editor), editorial page editor for the Detroit Free Press, has previously worked as a reporter, editorial writer and editor at news organizations including the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune and Lexington Herald-Leader. Henderson also previously worked in the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, where he covered the U.S. Supreme Court.Henderson has won more than a dozen national awards, include the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for commentary; he was named Journalist of the Year in 2014 by the National Association of Black Journalists. A graduate of the University of Michigan, where he was editorial page editor of the Michigan Daily, Henderson hosts a daily radio show, Detroit Today, on Detroit’s public radio station. He also hosts the weekly talk shows “American Black Journal” and “MiWeek,” both on Detroit Public Television.
Emily Hoerner (reporter) received a master’s degree in 2015 from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she reported on education, addiction, politics, inequality, and criminal justice, and took part in investigative projects of the Medill Justice Project and Medill Watchdog. Earlier, as an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, she worked at the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, an independent news service dedicated to advancing investigative and public affairs journalism. Emily’s work has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times, U.S. News, the Texas Tribune, USA Today, the Sacramento Bee, and the Miami Herald.
Jeanne Kuang (reporting fellow) received a bachelor’s degree in 2016 from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Jeanne has reported as an intern at the Chicago Tribune, the Sacramento Bee, NBC Los Angeles, and The Star in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has also worked at the Medill Justice Project and served as managing editor of the student-run paper The Daily Northwestern. Jeanne is interested in immigration, corruption, civil rights, and the intersection of law and social issues.
Sumayyah Jones (intern) is a sophomore majoring in public policy at the University of Chicago, where she was one of 20 students selected to take part in Seeds of Justice, a community-building and leadership-development program for first-year students.
Hafsa Razi (intern) is a junior majoring in public policy at the University of Chicago and contributing editor at the Hyde Pork-based South Side Weekly, where she reports on education and politics.
Rick Tulsky (co-director) developed a sense of the power of exposing social wrongs as a young reporter at the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, and retained his dedication to that work at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, and the San Jose Mercury News. A lawyer, Rick has been both a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and an Alicia Patterson fellow. He was a longtime board member and former president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, an international organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. He also was the founding director of Medill Watchdog, a program under which Northwestern University’s journalism students collaborated with major media organizations on projects focusing on social justice issues. Rick has received more than two dozen national awards including a 1987 Pulitzer Prize; his work was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1997 and 2001.
Rob Warden (co-director) is executive director emeritus and co-founder of the Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) at Northwestern University School of Law. During his 16-year tenure, the CWC was instrumental in exonerating 31 wrongfully convicted men and women in Illinois. Before launching the CWC, Rob was editor and publisher of Chicago Lawyer, where his investigations into Illinois capital cases launched a movement that culminated both in the founding of the Center in 1999 and abolition of the Illinois death penalty in 2011. His reporting at Chicago Lawyer was instrumental in 13 exonerations, including that of Gary Dotson, the nation’s first prisoner to be exonerated by DNA. Before that, Rob was a prize-winning investigative reporter for the Chicago Daily News and Washington Post. He has won more than 50 journalism awards and is the author of seven books.