Yale Announces Knight Journalism Fellows for 2001-2002

Yale Law School has announced the winners of the Knight Fellowships in Law for Journalists for the 2001-2002 academic year.

The Fellows will be Adam Freed, KNSD-TV/NBC, San Diego; Scott Hiaasen, The Palm Beach Post; Nadya Labi, Time Magazine; and Maro Robbins, San Antonio Express-News.

Freed has been a reporter with KNSD-TV in San Diego since 1997. He specializes in local politics, energy issues, and U.S./Mexico border issues. He also moderates “San Diego Headliners,” the city’s top-rated issues talk show, anchors prime-time election specials and candidate debates, and is a weekend morning news anchor. He holds a B.A. in linguistics and East Asian studies from Harvard University.

Hiaasen has been a staff writer for The Palm Beach Post since 1994. He has covered the state and federal civil courts, elections, Delray Beach City government, the police beat, and is currently on the Post’s investigations team. He has received awards from the Florida Bar for a series on how local police profit from forfeiture laws, and a piece on a local man’s fight for physician-assisted suicide. He holds a B.S. in journalism and communications from the University of Florida.

Labi has been a staff writer for Time Magazine since 1997, where she contributes to the society and lifestyle sections, breaking news and book reviews. Recent articles have included a cover story on the Jonesboro school shooting and investigations of the crashes of EgyptAir Flight 990 and SwissAir Flight 111. Prior to that, she was a reporter and fact-checker for Time International. Before her association with Time, she was a teacher at a multi-racial school in South Africa, and a research assistant on women’s issues for the United Nations Development Program in Sierra Leone. She holds a B.A. in social studies from Harvard University.

Robbins has been a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News in San Antonio, Texas, since 1997. He covers the federal courthouse and law-enforcement agencies. Recent stories have focused on immigration and drug cases overloading courts along the nation’s southern border, the special counsel probe into prosecutorial misconduct related to the Waco standoff, and the capital murder conviction in the dragging death in Jasper, Texas. He received a B.A. from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1992.

The Knight Fellowship program brings mid-career journalists to Yale Law School for an academic year to take courses and participate in seminars and other activities that will improve their understanding of legal and policy issues in order to enhance their reporting. Fellows who complete the course of study earn the degree of Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.). The Knight Fellowship at Yale is the only journalism fellowship that offers a master’s degree upon completion of the fellowship program.

The fellowship program was established to allow journalists to step back from the urgency of deadlines and to learn about the law in depth. Due to support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, fellowships include a stipend to cover living expenses during the fellowship year. In addition, in accordance with the fellowship’s mission to enrich legal reporting, Yale Law School provides full-tuition grants to fellows who return to journalism after their year of study.

At Yale, fellows receive a first-year legal education and take elective courses that focus on their areas of interest. Fellows study alongside students in Yale’s J.D. and LL.M. programs, meet frequently with members of the Law School faculty for informal exchanges, organize panel discussions and events for the Law School, and meet as a group with legal experts and other distinguished visitors.

Applications for the 2002-2003 Fellowships in Law for Journalists program will be accepted until January 7, 2002. For further information, please contact Fellowships in Law for Journalists, Yale Law School, P.O. Box 208215, New Haven, CT 06520-8215; gradpro.law@yale.edu; 203-432-1696; or at www.yale.edu/lawweb/lawschool/gradpro/mslj/.