Carolyn Adolph
Miranda Spivack
The Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism has awarded its first two reporting grants. One of the winning projects will explore state budget transparency; the other will examine the effects of the regressive tax system in the State of Washington.
Miranda Spivack, a former Washington Post reporter, will receive $15,000 to support a series on state budget transparency – stories that will include an in-depth appraisal of the worst and best states when it comes to fiscal accountability. The Ravitch money supports these stories within a broader project on states’ transparency for the Center for Investigative Reporting. It is likely that Spivack’s articles will be published in other outlets as well.
Carolyn Adolph, a reporter at Puget Sound Public radio station KUOW – and the station itself — will receive $15,000 to support a major project on the consequences of Washington State’s regressive tax system. The money will pay for Adolph’s expenses as she visits states – Massachusetts and Texas, to name two — that hold lessons for the State of Washington. The grant will also allow Adolph, an alum of the Ravitch Program, to hire freelancers who can bolster the interactive and social media aspects of the project. And it will provide support for freelance hires at KUOW – to help free up Adolph for the project. KUOW will produce a series for broadcast and online posts, and we hope to interest national outlets in the story.
The Ravitch Fiscal Program makes grants to fund ambitious reporting projects on fiscal policy on a continuous basis. The deadline for the next set of proposals is Dec. 1.
In addition to the Ravitch Program, the CUNY J-School provides money for investigative reporting through the McGraw Fellowships for Business Reporting and the Urban Investigative Grants Program.
The Ravitch Program, which also provides in-depth training on fiscal policy for state and local reporters and editors, is named for New York civic leader Richard Ravitch, who funds the program with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
BIOS
Miranda Spivack spent nearly 20 years at The Washington Post Co. as an editor and reporter, tussling often with local officials to obtain essential information that they typically preferred to conceal. She wrote about the high cost to taxpayers of out-of-court settlements, major zoning abuses, and favoritism by planning officials. She also designed a ground-breaking weekly supplement that the Post replicated across the Washington region.
Among her numerous journalism awards: a First Place for Local Government Reporting from the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association (2013). Most recently, she won an Honorable Mention for Cultural Tourism in the 2015 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she was a Yale Law School journalism fellow.
Carolyn Adolph is the economy reporter for KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, covering a region thick with planes, ships, tech and mega-projects. This post follows careers at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Montreal Gazette and the Toronto Star.
A graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa, she immigrated to the U.S. in 2005. Adolph studied economics at the University of California, Davis, and the Cultural Impact of Technological Change at the University of Washington.