The Moody College of Communication and the School of Journalism and Media commemorate Sunshine Week, a nationwide initiative focused on highlighting the importance of open government and public records laws, by hosting a group of award-winning journalists dedicated to ensuring national, state and local government officials are accountable to their constituents.

Aura Bogado is a senior reporter and producer for Reveal, covering immigration. Previously, she was a staff writer at Grist, where she wrote about the intersection of race and the environment. She also was the news editor at Colorlines and a writer for The Nation. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The American Prospect and Mother Jones and a variety of other publications.

Andrew Ford is a reporter for the USA Today Network in New Jersey, a family of Gannett daily newspapers including the Asbury Park Press and The Record (Bergen County). In 2020, he partnered with ProPublica as part of their Local Reporting Network. In 2019, he showed how police car chases killed at least 63 people in the past decade and injured more than 2,500, nearly half of whom were bystanders and cops. His award-winning investigative reporting is bolstered by narrative flair, original data analysis and video production.

Sandhya Kambhampati is a data reporter on the Los Angeles Times Data Desk, where she covers the demographics and diversity of California and the nation. She previously worked at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Correctiv and ProPublica Illinois. Her work on the widespread inaccuracies in Cook County’s property tax assessment system was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for local reporting in 2018.

Beryl Lipton is a projects editor and senior reporter at MuckRock and has written extensively on the public’s ability to access police disciplinary records and the Freedom of Information Act. She is motivated by the inefficiencies that hinder a progressive democracy.
 

This Sunshine Week panel is possible in part by a generous gift from Mark Shaw, BJ ‘86, now Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer, Southwest Airlines.