Collier Prize for State Government Accountability
Collier Prize Showcase
Our first event, the Collier Prize Showcase, happens Feb. 13 in Gainesville. It will be live-streamed as well, and you can register to attend in person or virtually.
Program Overview
10 a.m.: Digging deep on a tragedy: How the Texas Tribune, ProPublica and Frontline went deep on the school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. With reporters Lomi Kriel, Zach Despart and Lexi Churchill, moderated by UF College of Journalism and Communications investigative lecturer Ted Bridis.
11 a.m.: New trends and tools to help reporters access records and track legislators and lobbyists. With David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, Data expert Charles Minshew of the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Cheryl Phillips of Stanford University, founder of the Big Local News project.
Noon: Break, and lunch for in-Gainesville attendees
12:50 p.m.: How CalMatters built the Digital Democracy project. What it provides state government reporters and citizens and the effort to bring it to other states. With Neil Chase, chief executive officer of CalMatters, a nonprofit investigative news organization focused on state government issues, and Dave Lesher, developer of Digital Democracy.
2 p.m.: Making journalism project partnerships work. How to set up rules and guardrails to ensure success and avoid disaster. With Neil Chase, Lomi Kriel and Zach Despart, moderated by veteran editor and journalism innovator Pam Fine.
Meet our Panelists
Lexi Churchill is a research reporter for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative. Before joining ProPublica, Lexi interned at CNBC, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Columbia Daily Tribune, and KCUR 89.3, Kansas City’s NPR affiliate. Her reporting on the University of Missouri’s Title IX appeals process won the GateHouse Public Service Award for 2018.
Zach Despart is a politics reporter for The Texas Tribune. He investigates power — who wields it, how and to what ends — through the lens of Texas government. An upstate New York native, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and film from the University of Vermont.
Lomi Kriel is a reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit. Previously she was a reporter at the Houston Chronicle covering immigration, often focused on the Texas border. She received the 2019 George Polk Award for national reporting, in part for her continued work on family separations. Kriel, who was born and raised in South Africa, immigrated to the United States in 1998. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University and speaks Afrikaans and Spanish.
Neil Chase is the chief executive officer of CalMatters. He was previously executive editor of The Mercury News and East Bay Times, where his team won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Coverage. Neil worked as an editor at The San Francisco Examiner, The Arizona Republic, CBS MarketWatch and The New York Times and was an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
David Cuillier, Ph.D., is director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project. Before joining the University of Florida in July 2023, Cuillier taught access to public records, data journalism, and other courses at the University of Arizona School of Journalism for 17 years, where he also served as director of the school and director of graduate studies. He served as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2013-14, as well as SPJ FOI chair for five years, was president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition 2019-2023 and served as head of the Communication Law & Policy Division for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Charles Minshew is the digital storytelling editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, helping journalists tell stories with data and digital tools. Charles is the former director of data services for Investigative Reporters & Editors, the world’s largest organization for data and investigative journalists. His data and graphics work has been featured in the Orlando Sentinel, the Los Angeles Times and NPR. He trains teams at Top 25 TV stations, universities and newsrooms around the USA that continue to grow and produce quality work.
Cheryl Phillips is the founder and director of Stanford University’s Big Local News, a data-sharing platform and computational collaborative in support of local journalism. She also is co-founder of the Stanford Open Policing Project, a cross-departmental effort to collect police interaction data and evaluate racial disparities. She teaches data and investigative journalism and has worked in numerous newsrooms, including The Seattle Times, USA TODAY, The Detroit News and newsrooms in Texas and Montana.
Pam Fine is an experienced news leader who has run multiple newsrooms, taught multimedia reporting and ethics and worked with news organizations and industry groups on projects to improve news coverage and transform journalistic practices. She is a former Knight Chair in News, Leadership and Community at the University of Kansas, managing editor at Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Indianapolis Star and past president of the American Society of News Editors.
Dave Lesher, a veteran California journalist and state policy expert, co-founded CalMatters in 2015 and led the organization as Editor/CEO for several years. He led the creation of Digital Democracy, an unprecedented, custom-built AI tool tracks that every word spoken in California legislative public hearings, every dollar donated to politicians, every bill introduced, every vote cast and more.
Ted Bridis is the Michael and Linda Connelly Senior Lecturer in Investigative Reporting at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. Before joining UF in 2018, Bridis was editor of the Associated Press’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington investigative team and was AP’s leading newsroom expert on security practices for source-protection and on the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and related laws.