Staff Reports
Mary Ellen Klas, the capital bureau chief for The Miami Herald, was selected as a Nieman Fellow for 2018-19, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard announced Tuesday.
The Foundation, “home to internationally recognized journalism fellowships, programs and publications,” picked 27 fellows in all.
“The group includes reporters, correspondents, editors, photographers, filmmakers, television news anchors, a radio producer and other journalists who specialize in data investigations, digital development, social media, virtual reality and new forms of storytelling,” a news release said.
“They will begin two semesters of study at Harvard University in the fall of 2018.”
Klas “will examine the relationship between declining journalism resources and corruption in local communities and more specifically, what happens to government integrity when watchdog reporting declines.”
“So thrilled to be part of this impressive group of journalists,” she tweeted Tuesday.
She’s also a co-bureau chief, along with Steve Bousquet, of the paper’s merged newsgathering operation in Tallahassee with the Tampa Bay Times.
Klas is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to her Herald bio.
She previously served as Tallahassee bureau chief for Florida Trend magazine and Tallahassee bureau chief for the Palm Beach Post.
She is married to John Kennedy, another veteran Tallahassee reporter who is now capital correspondent for GateHouse Media‘s Florida newspapers. They have two adult daughters.
