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Pauline Arrillaga, a Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University, and 2023 fellows Elise Gregg, Joseph Kual Zakaria, and Mingson Lau, were winners of this year’s Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book and Journalism Grand Prize. In this panel, they will discuss their work documenting the far-reaching impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Their in-depth journalism focuses on the stories of people whose lives have been affected by the decision, exploring how the decision has altered health care, policy, and culture. The event will be moderated by Roswell Goransson, a student at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders and co-director of this year’s Speak Truth to Power video contest winning film “Don’t Mess With Texas: An Abortion Story.” The panelists will also touch on the importance of human rights reporting and invite students to write about issues in their own communities. Register for the conversation today.
About the Speakers
Pauline Arrillaga, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University
Pauline Arrillaga is executive editor of the prestigious Carnegie-Knight News21 program, housed at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She works with top journalism students from universities across the U.S. to produce in-depth projects for major media outlets. News21 journalists have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Best of the West contest, Online Journalism Awards, Editor & Publisher Magazine’s national EPPY Award, and the Arizona Press Club award. Arrillaga joined the Cronkite School in 2019 to launch a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to increase reporting of health disparities in underserved communities. Prior to that, she spent 27 years as a writer and editor at The Associated Press – most recently as the head of U.S. enterprise journalism. Arrillaga is known as a mentor and coach to journalists across the globe. She also serves as executive director of the National Center on Disability and Journalism.
Elise Gregg
Elise Catrion Gregg is a journalist in South Florida, currently interning with WLRN public radio. She earned her master’s degree in criminal justice from Florida International University, where she also completed her bachelor’s degree in journalism. During her time at FIU, she served as editor-in-chief for PantherNOW, FIU’s student newspaper, for two years. Elise has also interned at the Miami Herald and completed a fellowship with News21, which won two RFK journalism awards for the newsroom’s coverage of post-Roe America.
Joseph “Jazari” Kual Zakaria
Joseph “Jazari” Kual Zakaria is a 2022 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, double majoring in journalism and broadcasting media production with a minor in English. He has worked with the Nebraska Examiner, Flatwater Free Press and was part of the award-winning 2023 News21 fellowship cohort. In 2023, he founded the Valiant Post, a digital news outlets and is also the founder of Kualdom Creations, a broadcasting and media production company in Lincoln, Nebraska. In addition, Jazari is also a substitute teacher within his school district.
Mingson Lau
Mingson Lau is a visual journalist with more than a decade of experience in video, photo, and multimedia editing. Passionate about storytelling, Lau aims to tell impactful stories through visuals and writing, focusing on communicating informative, elucidating, and engaging news. As a digital-focused reporter at KSNV News 3, Lau reports, films, and edits broadcast, social, and digital videos. To bolster the station’s digital storytelling, he designed social graphics, provided still photography, and developed web element workflows. These new processes include providing live coverage through digital-focused, field-produced photos, graphics, articles, and video.
Student Moderator: Roswell Goransson (Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders)
Roswell Goransson (he/they) is a senior at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in Austin, Texas. He is one of the three filmmakers behind Don’t Mess With Texas: An Abortion Story, which was recently named the Grand Prize winner of the 2024 RFK Human Rights Speak Truth to Power Student Film competition. The project brings together him and his classmates’ passions for film and human rights advocacy. Roswell hopes to continue work in both of these fields, as well as in English, history, theater, and art, in college next year.