2008 Fellows

Esmeralda Bermudez
Reporter
The Oregonian

Esmeralda Bermudez writes about immigration and the Latino community for The Oregonian. Her work has taken readers inside schools, prisons and local businesses, where new and old immigrants are vastly changing the Northwest landscape. In 2006, her vivid chronicle of a family that was separated and deported to Guatemala after living in Oregon 13 years was a finalist for the Livingston Award for International reporting. That work, along with other reporting from Mexico, earned her the Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Latin American Reporting from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, along with a series of other recognitions.

A native of El Salvador, Esmeralda grew up in the Los Angeles area and graduated from the University of Southern California.

Nate Carlisle
Reporter
The Salt Lake Tribune

Nate Carlisle has reported on crime and public safety for The Salt Lake Tribune since 2005. He has written about the immigrant corridor in southeast Utah and traveled with the Utah National Guard when it deployed to Arizona to build a border fence. He previously worked at the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune.

Nate has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Alison Fast
Television producer and video journalist

Alison Fast is a television producer and video journalist based in New York and Los Angeles, who has worked for such networks as NBC/Universal, MTV and PBS. In 2007, she won a Peabody Award for writing, producing, shooting, and editing a one-hour documentary, "For My Country? Latinos In The Military" for mun2 (NBC/Universal), examining factors that influence young Latinos to join the military out of high school.

Alison also designs and leads media training workshops, strengthening the role of civil society organizations in Africa and The Middle East to meet challenges around HIV/AIDS and democracy building. Visit www.barefootworkshops.org

Alison’s interest in telling border stories has resulted from extensive travel to and from Mexico during the last twelve years, and more recent exposure to the unique diaspora of culture and influence that has grown up around border communities in southern California and Texas.

Alison holds a Bachelors Degree in Journalism from Boston University, has traveled in more than twenty countries, and speaks Spanish and Portuguese fluently.

Susan Ferriss
Senior Reporter
Sacramento Bee

Susan Ferriss has been covering immigration for the Sacramento Bee since January 2006. She won a Columbia University “Let’s Do It Better” award for coverage of race issues for her 2006 series “Hired Hands,” which chronicled ties between U.S. employers and immigrant workers. Between 1997 and 2006, Susan was the Mexico-based Latin America correspondent for Cox Newspapers.

Her stories appeared in many newspapers, including Cox’s Austin American-Statesman and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A series Susan produced in 2003 called “Broken Promises: How Economic Reforms Failed Mexico” won that year’s Overseas Press Club award for best reporting on Latin America and the Inter-American Press Association’s prize for best story on hemispheric affairs.

Susan is co-author of a 1997 book about Cesar Chavez, “The Fight in the Fields,” and producer of a documentary film about farm laborers, “The Golden Cage.” Susan was a 2004-2005 Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University.

David Francis
Reporter
Washington Examiner

David Francis is a reporter based in Washington, D.C. Most recently he has written for Foreign Policy magazine, the Washington Examiner, the Washington Monthly and the National Journal Group. He covers demographics, immigration and business issues in the greater Washington area. This spring, he is reporting on immigration, labor and energy issues from Europe as a John C. McCloy Journalism Fellow.

David has a Bachelors degree from the University of Chicago and is completing his graduate degree at Georgetown University.

William La Jeunesse
Correspondent
Fox News Channel

William La Jeunesse has covered border issues dating back to the 1980s, first as print reporter for the Arizona Republic and later for the CBS affiliate in Phoenix and the NBC station in San Diego. He is currently a Los Angeles based correspondent for the Fox News Channel, where he covers a range of issues, including immigration. He has followed immigrants back to Guatemala and Honduras, and made numerous trips to border towns in Baja, Sonora, and Chihuahua. In addition to Mexico and Latin America, William has reported from Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He was among the first to broadcast from Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and spent three tours in Iraq.

William has won multiple awards, including nine regional Emmys for spot, feature and investigative reporting. He graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in American Literature and Journalism and earned his MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Joel Millman
U.S.-Mexico Border Bureau Chief
Wall Street Journal

Joel Millman, U.S.-Mexico border bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, 2000-2005, is now based in Portland, Oregon. He joined the paper in 1996. Joel began his journalism career as a high school news stringer for the South Middlesex (Mass.) News and later worked as a news producer with WNEW-TV News in New York. A freelance investigative reporter 1983 to 1986, in 1987 he became a research fellow at the Institute of Current World Affairs, based in Costa Rica and El Salvador.

In the 1980s, Joel broke two of the most important investigative stories published about U.S. policy in Central America. His work on drug pilot Adler Berriman Seal for the Village Voice and Mother Jones magazine in 1986 was prescient in tying covert U.S. activity to the world of drug trafficking. His 1989 award-winning exposé for The New York Times Magazine about corruption in El Salvador’s military helped break a deadlock in peace negotiations that eventually led to the end of a 20-year civil war. He joined Forbes magazine as an associate editor in 1989.

In 1990, Joel won a first-place award from the Overseas Press Club for magazine journalism and received the Inter American Press Association's (IAPA's) interpretive commentary award. In 1997, he was a member of a Wall Street Journal team awarded the IAPA award for in-depth reporting for their coverage of political corruption and the drug-running crisis in Latin America. In 2004 Joel received the Maria Moors Cabot prize given by Columbia University’s School of Journalism, which is a lifetime achievement award for Latin American coverage. Additionally, his book, The Other Americans (1997), portrays the positive impact of immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica and Brazil on the United States.

Joel is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in international relations.

Marissa Rodriguez
Managing Editor
Hispanic Magazine

Marissa Rodriguez is the managing editor for Hispanic Magazine, the largest national English-language general interest magazine for Hispanics. The magazine, now in its 20th year in print, focuses on lifestyle, entertainment, politics, business, culture and social issues for Latinos in the U.S. Marissa has written extensively for the magazine in all departments but with a special emphasis on politics, immigration, cultural identity and social issues.

Previously, Marissa was a contributor and production editor for PODER Magazine and Hispanic Enterprise Magazine, and managing editor of Scene in SA Monthly, a city magazine for San Antonio, Texas. She has also contributed to several national and regional magazines and newspapers. She has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University and is completing a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.