Awarding fellowships to journalists to pursue independent projects of significant interest and skepticism that will benefit the public.
Former APF fellow Erika Hayasaki has joined the board of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Hayasaki is an associate professor of literary journalism at the University of California, Irvine. She won an APF fellowship in 2018 and concentrated on epigenetics and the future of gene editing.
A former reporter at the Los Angeles Times, she is the author of “The Death Class: A True Story About Life” (Simon & Schuster, 2014) and “Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity and the Meaning of Family” (Algonquin Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Marie Claire, MIT Technology Review, Slate, The Guardian, Foreign Policy and other outlets.
Her science writing has been featured multiple times in Longform’s Best of Science Writing. She teaches courses on health, medical and science writing and multimedia storytelling. She also was a Knight-Wallace Reporting fellow and has served as a judge for the APF annual competition.
She joins board members Maud Beelman, Margaret Engel, Frankie Fitzgerald, Louis Freedburg, Robin Marantz Henig, Patrick Hoge, Mike Hudson, Robert Lee Hotz, Michael Massing, Michelle Nijhuis, and Kristal Brent Zook.
2023 Fellows
58th Annual Fellowship Winners
Apply for a Fellowship
Applications are now open for independant writing projects funded by the Alicia Patterson Foundation. The fellowship grants, either 12 month ($40,000) or 6 months ($20,000), allow you to do independant research and writing on a topic of your choosing. At least one fellowship is aimed at science and environmental coverage.
Alicia Patterson
Alicia Patterson reluctantly became a newspaper publisher in 1940. Her husband wanted to keep her busy and she wanted to show her accomplished father that she could be as good a journalist as he was. From that timid start she created Newsday, the most successful new daily newspaper of the postwar period.
Our Mission
To promote and sustain the best traditions of American journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation supports journalists engaged in rigorous, probing, in-depth reporting. Through its fellowships, the foundation works to foster a community of independent journalists committed to informing the public truthfully on significant issues around the world.
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For over five decades, the Alicia Patterson Foundation has been giving top journalists the time away from daily deadlines to pursue stories of significance that have changed policies, illuminated problems and educated the public. The cost of in-depth reporting and the shrinking size of newsrooms has made the support of APF even more critical for an informed society.
Current Fellows 2023
Susie Cagle
“The Unintended Consequences of California’s Water Policies”
Anakwa Dwamena
“Climate Change and Democracy in West Africa”
Oscar Lopez
“Mexico’s Disappeared”
Jyoti Madhusoodanan
“Human Experiments: Unblinding Clinical Trials”
Melba Newsome
“Climate Displacement for People of Color”
Eric Peterson
“Domestic Violence in Utah”
Keith Schneider
“Confronting Agriculture’s Toxic Discharge”
Sophie Will
“Domestic Violence in Utah”
April Zhu
“Culture and Power in Kenya-China Relations”
Where is the Future of the Catholic Church? Watching Young Adults Drop Out
The Catholic Church in the United States is split over the role of women, and whether Joe Biden should receive Holy Communion, but these divisions pale in comparison to the gap between the hierarchy and many young Catholics. They are
Pope’s Environmental Stand Splits Catholics
The ecological concern Pope Francis has sparked among Catholics –and resistance to it– reflect how the faithful are split over the climate emergency, the role of capitalism, and where 1.3 billion global Catholics should put their money and clout. Powerful
Fractured Worship
The small congregation of Roman Catholic women gathered for Mass not in a church but a living room, with a woman presider rather than a male priest. After the homily, each of the women offered a brief reflection. They took
Sign of Catholic Divide – Women Want a Bigger Role in the Church
The small congregation prayed, sang, and listened to readings from scripture as any other Roman Catholics might do at Mass, rendering particular reverence at the moment of consecration, when the faithful believe bread and wine become the body and blood
The Inside Story of How Trump ‘Kept the Oil’ in Syria and Lost
This article, by APF fellow Kenneth R. Rosen, first appeared in The Daily Beast on May 21, 2021. It was supported by his research for his APF fellowship. Delil Souleiman/Getty The mind-blowingly ambitious plan would have seen Delta Crescent, a
The American Wildcatters Who Sought Syrian Oil
This piece, written by APF fellow Kenneth R. Rosen, ran in Esquire Magazine, on November, 15, 2022. It was supported by his research for his APF fellowship. Amidst a global energy shortage, the three men behind Delta Crescent Energy figured
How Government and Private Firms Shaped California’s Devastating Floods
In a land gripped by its history of drought, the Central Valley has planned poorly for its floods, threatening the lives and livelihoods of thousands. A few days after the flooding in California’s Central Valley began in March, George Wurzel,
Historic Wet Year Highlights California’s Water Management Crossroads
Barriers to capturing and storing flood water may threaten the Golden State’s ability to adapt to a hotter, drier climate. Not so long ago, the dry western expanse of Madera County in California’s San Joaquin Valley was a prime example
Discrimination Has Trapped People of Color in Unhealthy Urban ‘Heat Islands’
People of color, more than other groups, live in neighborhoods prone to excess heat and the illnesses that go with it Credit: Chiara Vercesi On a July day in 2021 that would become blazing hot, dozens of community volunteers gathered
California’s Dual Water Crisis
Record-breaking storms are wreaking havoc – compounding, not erasing, the difficulties of multi-year drought. The renter’s home in Sanger, just outside Fresno, went dry in the spring. The well at one house in Madera has been on and off since
Agriculture Evades Accountability, Responsibility for America’s Worst Water Pollution
Law, Policy, and Power Insulate Crop and Livestock Producers In 1990, following intensive field trials, a respected agronomist at Iowa State University named Fred Blackmer formally introduced an inexpensive tool to accurately measure how much nitrogen farmers actually require to
How an Indigenous community in Panama is escaping rising seas
The Indigenous Guna people of Gardi Sugdub have plans to move to Panama’s mainland this year Many of the homes on the island of Gardi Sugdub, in Panama’s Guna Yala province, sit right at the edge of the sea. MICHAEL
Pope’s Environmental Stand Splits Catholics
Fractured Worship
Sign of Catholic Divide – Women Want a Bigger Role in the Church
The American Wildcatters Who Sought Syrian Oil
California’s Dual Water Crisis