Chicago—Emily C. Dooley, an award-winning environmental reporter for Newsday on Long Island, New York, has been named recipient of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Journalism Fellowship on Community Resilience.
Dooley’s reporting for Newsday is distinguished by the many stories she wrote about Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath, covering virtually every aspect of the storm from its immediate devastation to its continuing impact many months after the storm.
The Fellowship will enable Dooley to work with world-class research scientists, scholars, and others to further develop the journalistic and analytical skills needed to produce research-based enterprise journalism that explores the capacity of individuals and their communities to recover from disaster.
The Fellowship was established with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation which has a long-standing commitment to support work on resilience. The AP-NORC Center is a joint venture of The Associated Press and the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. Dooley was awarded the Fellowship after a national competition open to mid-career journalists with a track record of reporting on issues of resilience, many of whom wrote extensively about Superstorm Sandy.
“Emily Dooley emerged from an extraordinarily talented field of journalists who recognize that it is important for the field of journalism to move beyond coverage of disaster as spot news,” said Trevor Tompson, Director of the AP-NORC Center. “She recognizes that important stories lie within the resilience of people and communities in the wake of disaster. We are fortunate that she will be devoting an extended period of time to developing the skills and abilities needed to analyze, understand, and report on the emerging science of resilience.”
“Superstorm Sandy tested the resilience of New York and New Jersey and it is important to help communities better prepare for future storms and other shocks and stresses,” said Rockefeller Foundation Vice President, Global Communications Neill Coleman. “The Rockefeller Foundation congratulates Emily on the Fellowship and looks forward to her future journalism and reporting on resilience.”
“The impact and aftermath of Superstorm Sandy affected millions of people and it likely won’t be the last time people’s lives are put at risk because of a natural disaster,” Dooley said. “This Fellowship will enable me to learn important new techniques for covering these stories in the depth they deserve and need.”
Dooley’s nine-month fellowship will have two main components: education and the opportunity to do in-depth journalism on topics related to community resilience.
- Approximately 40 percent of Dooley’s time will be devoted to formal and informal training in research methods, disaster response, urban studies, and sociology. This training will capitalize on the resources of the research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago itself, and other national and global resources in the research community.
- Approximately 60 percent of her time will be spent developing in-depth reporting projects with the assistance of AP journalists and NORC senior staff. She will work with AP editors to develop reporting projects for the multi-format news platforms of the news cooperative.
She will have the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time doing research and reporting in communities in the New York and New Jersey areas that were affected by Superstorm Sandy and which are still recovering from the storm.
Dooley’s work as a journalist has spanned continents, issues, and media platforms. Prior to her work on the environmental beat for Newsday, she worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch where she reported on the economy, technology, the legal industry and telecommunications, later shooting weekly business videos, managing an online newsletter, and maintaining a social media presence for the paper. While writing for the Cape Cod Times in Massachusetts, she covered environmental issues, politics, education, and other issues before helping start the paper’s multimedia team. She reported from South Africa about the AIDS issue for the Times.
She has won awards from The Newswomen’s Club of New York, Inland Press Association, American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, New England Newspaper Association, New England Press Association, and Colorado Press Association. Dooley earned a Bachelor of Arts dual degree in newspaper journalism and public affairs from Syracuse University.
Information about the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research is available at: www.apnorc.org.
Contact: For the AP-NORC Center: Eric Young, (301) 634-9536 or young-eric@norc.org.