Katherine Hapgood has joined the staff of the Center for Public Integrity as this year’s Charles Lewis American University fellow. She’ll be focusing in part on the nonprofit investigative news organization’s work on access to democracy issues ahead of the 2024 election.
Originally from Des Moines, Iowa, Hapgood recently graduated with a degree in journalism and chemistry from Boston University, where she wrote for outlets including the Boston Globe, MetroWest Daily News and Civil Service World (UK).
She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in journalism and public affairs with a concentration in investigative journalism at American, which partners with Public Integrity each year on a paid fellowship that’s part-time during the school year and full-time for the remainder of the year.
“I am ecstatic to work with the equity-focused team at CPI and I look forward to learning from all of the accomplished and inspiring people within the organization,” Hapgood said.
Last year, Public Integrity and American renamed the fellowship in honor of Public Integrity founder Charles Lewis, who also founded and recently retired from leading the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American.
Hapgood is primarily interested in government, political and investigative journalism targeted at holding systems, corporations and people in power accountable, and writing stories to empower the public.
Over the past year, 2022-2023 Charles Lewis American University fellow Ileana Garnand published an investigation into the flood of state laws targeting trans youth and contributed to major collaborative investigations including “Who Counts?,” which won a National Headliner Award.
Public Integrity’s journalists have been recognized with numerous other honors in recent months, including a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence, the Stewart B. McKinney Award, the Paul Tobenkin Award, a Peabody Award nomination, an Excellence in Financial Journalism award, a National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award, the Sigma Award recognizing the world’s best data journalism, two finalist honors for the Shaufler Prize for reporting about underserved people, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing’s “Best in Business” awards, the Gracie Awards honoring media produced by and for women, the D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Dateline Awards, and the Signal Awards recognizing the country’s best podcasts.
Founded in 1989, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Center for Public Integrity is one of the oldest nonprofit news organizations in the country and is dedicated to investigating systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in the United States.