Three women receive IRE's 2024 Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship

Torsheta Jackson of Mississippi Free Press, Clavel Rangel, an independent journalist, and Morgan Young from WFAA-TV, Dallas, will serve as IRE's 2024 Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellows.

This yearlong fellowship is designed to increase the range of backgrounds, experiences and interests within the field of investigative journalism, where diverse perspectives are critically important. The fellowship program is open to U.S. journalists of color with at least three years of post-college work experience.

Torsheta Jackson, based in Richmond, Miss., is Mississippi Free Press' award-winning education-equity reporter in partnership with Report for America. Before joining the newsroom full time, Jackson spent 19 years as an educator and coach and 12 years as a freelance journalist. She received her B.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi and her M.A. from the University of Mississippi.

Jackson's project will focus on educational services at county juvenile detention centers in Mississippi. The Mississippi Code of 1972 requires these facilities to provide educational services, and the Mississippi Department of Education has set standards for the provision of these services. However, not much is known about how academic achievement in these centers compares to schools, and sources say there is too little actual oversight.

Clavel Rangel is an independent journalist based in Miami and co-founder of the Network of Journalists from the Venezuelan Amazon. She has worked at El Tiempo Latino as senior editor and on the Arepita newsletter as editorial director. She is a 2018 International Visitor Leadership Fellow through the Murrow Program for Journalists, a 2019 Open Society Fellow, and a Resilience Fund Fellow. In 2023, she joined the Third Cohort of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.

Rangel’s project will center on the Darién Gap journey, its emotional impact on migrant children in the United States and how the government is addressing their psychological needs.

Morgan Young is an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter and anchor for WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri. Morgan has received multiple Emmy Awards, Associated Press Awards, Alabama Broadcaster Association Awards and a Gracie Allen Award for her work.

Young's project will be a deep dive into the policing policies that dictate how officers and investigators respond to reports of "runaway" children and teens. She will examine the impact those policies have on response times, outcomes for the children and the disproportionate impact these policies have on missing children of color.

Jackson, Rangel and Young were selected for the fellowship based on the projects they pitched in their applications. They will continue in their current professional roles while receiving a suite of IRE resources and support. These include training at an IRE data journalism bootcamp and both annual conferences, and they will receive IRE data services. Most importantly, they will each receive a mentor network of IRE members who will guide them through their year-long projects.

This fellowship was initially made possible thanks to generous donations from IRE members Meghan Hoyer, Megan Luther, Mike Tahani and Mike Gruss. Additional funding was provided by the IRE community and company sponsors ABC News, CNN, ESPN, Gray Television and Hearst Foundations. Almost $120,000 has been raised to support the program. The program was renamed for Chauncey Bailey in 2023.

Applications for the 2025 IRE Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship will be available in October 2024.

If you’d like to donate to the Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship, visit the IRE donation page and indicate your contribution is for the JOC fellowship.

If you are interested in participating in IRE training events and need financial assistance to attend, check out our fellowships and scholarships.