Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service Reporter PrincessSafiya Byers has been selected for the prestigious O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University.
The fellowship, which begins in August, will allow Byers to produce an in-depth series of stories that explore how mental health challenges, gaps in school support and insufficient city and county resources push young people into housing instability and often trap them in cycles that extend into adulthood.
Byers is the first journalist from a community-based nonprofit newsroom to be selected in the O’Brien Fellowship’s history. She and four other fellows will be teamed with two Marquette University students to assist with their projects.
“This talented group of journalists was selected from the largest applicant pool in O’Brien’s 14-year history,” Jeffery Gerritt, director of the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, said. “The diversity of their projects reflects both the future of journalism and O’Brien’s traditional mission of advancing justice and equity.”
The fellows or their news organization will receive $75,000, with additional stipends for research, travel, and housing, to complete journalism projects that will advance justice and equity on local and national issues.
Byers, who interned at NNS while a student at Marquette University before graduating in 2020. That year, she became NNS’s first full-time reporter through a partnership with Report For America.
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