WINNER NAMED FOR TWENTY
SEVENTH
MARTIN WISE GOODMAN CANADIAN
NIEMAN FELLOWSHIP
The trustees of the Martin Wise Goodman Trust announce that RACHEL PULFER,
Executive Director of Journalists for Human
Rights, has been awarded the twenty seventh Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman
Fellowship at Harvard University.
This fellowship is funded
by a publicly subscribed permanent endowment in memory
of Martin Wise Goodman, late President of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
Ms. Pulfer will join the 86th class of Nieman
Fellows at Harvard University. The
fellowship carries a stipend for living expenses and payment of fees to Harvard
University.
photo credit Celine Kim
"This is just extraordinary news,” Ms. Pulfer said after the Canadian
Nieman Fellowship Selection
committee awarded her the biennial
fellowship. “I'm deeply grateful to the Goodman family for their support of
this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and humbled by being chosen as this year's
Canadian Nieman Fellow. Thank you to the Martin Wise Goodman Trust, and the
Nieman Foundation, for supporting me in my work at the intersection of journalism, human rights, development and media freedoms at this critical juncture for democracy and human
rights worldwide. I greatly look forward to the year ahead, and hope to make a
meaningful contribution, both to the Nieman community and to these fields,
during the fellowship and afterwards."
While at Harvard, Ms. Pulfer will study
the intersection of journalism, human rights and international development,
with a focus on how human rights journalism can help inform and improve local
and global political decisions and policymaking, in and for developing
countries.
Rachel Pulfer is the Executive
Director for Journalists for Human Rights, where she oversaw an expansion in
media development programming from Africa to North America, the Middle East and Central Asia. She arrived at JHR in
2010 after 11 years as a
reporter and editor for Canadian Business, the Walrus, Azure and the Montreal
Gazette. She has written on topics ranging from human rights and international development to the intersection of business and public policy.
She has received a 2022 honorary
degree in journalism from Loyalist
College in Ontario and the Michener Baxter Award for Excellence in Public
Service Journalism.
The Nieman Fellowships were
established for American journalists in 1938 in memory of Lucius W. Nieman,
founder of the Milwaukee Journal. It provides for a year of study for working
journalists in any department of Harvard University as well as a seminar program. Previous to the
founding of the Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship in 1982, thirteen
Canadian journalists had gone to Harvard on this program under other funding,
including Martin Goodman (Nieman
fellow class of '62).
“Rachel’s impressive career to date has
exemplified a deep commitment to both the practice of journalism, but also to the
journalistic community around the world”, said Jonathan Goodman, Chair of the
Canadian Nieman Fellowship. “Rachel
makes journalism better; a year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow
representing Canada, will only amplify and radiate her future impact on the
profession.
This year’s Canadian Nieman
Fellowship Selection committee consisted of Anne Marie Lipinski, Curator, The
Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University; Ed Greenspon, President and CEO, Public
Policy Forum; Malcom Kirk, President of Canadian Press; Douglas Knight, Chair
and CEO of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards; Laura Lynch, Host of
CBC’s What on Earth, Karyn Pugliese, Editor-in-Chief of Canadaland; David Skok,
CEO & Editor-in-Chief at the Logic; Jonathan Goodman, Global Chair of Monitor Deloitte and Chair of the Canadian Nieman
Fellowship; Lauren Goodman, Administrator of the Canadian Nieman Fellowship;
and Janis Goodman, wife of the late Martin Goodman. Each of Laura Lynch, Karyn
Pugliese and David Skok are former Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellows.
Meet the Class of 2024