Three alumni of the Ida B. Wells Society’s Investigative Reporting Internship Program worked on news teams that either won a 2026 Pulitzer Prize or were recognized as nominated finalists.
Allison Beck, Ryanne Mena, and Greg Morton contributed to coverage in the Local Reporting category for their respective news organizations. Both Beck and Mena were interns while working on projects that emerged in the running for the coveted prize, while Morton served as a full-time staff member in his newsroom. Mena was a contributor on the project that won the Pulitzer; Morton was recognized as a named finalist. Beck was a contributor on work that was a finalist.
“Having alums in the ranks of those recognized at this level is incredible validation of our efforts,” said Robbie Morganfield, executive director of the Society. “It inspires us to keep doing what we do with support from those who believe–as we do–that speaking truth to power and producing accountability journalism must be promoted and protected now more than ever.”
Since 2021, the Ida B. Wells Society has provided college students and recent graduates opportunities to spend the summer embedded in investigative and data teams across the nation. Interns typically contribute to long-term projects and learn skills that help them begin newsroom careers. During his 2021 internship with The New York Times, Donovan J. Thomas was a contributing reporter on a team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
Celebrating its 10th year as a news trade organization, the Ida B. Wells Society is devoted to increasing the pipeline of investigative journalists in the field.
Greg Morton, a member of the inaugural Investigative Reporting Internship cohort in 2021, is a named finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting for his work on the Baltimore Banner’s data-based work on how Baltimore’s students’ long commutes to school on city transit cause them to miss class and expose them to danger.
Read more about the reporting here and more about Greg in a recent Member Spotlight.
Greg is the data editor for The Baltimore Banner.
Allison Beck, a 2025 intern at the Miami Herald, is a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting as part of the Miami Herald staff for the newsroom’s reporting on the human cost behind the high-speed Brightline railroad. Allison’s byline appears on two of the five nominated written articles.
Read more about the reporting here.
Allison is currently a reporter for the Coral Springs News, a sister publication of the Miami Herald.
Ryanne Mena, a 2024 ProPublica intern, contributed to the reporting on the first of seven stories that resulted in ProPublica and The Connecticut Mirror’s 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting. The series exposed how the state’s towing laws favored companies that overcharged residents.
Read more about that project here.
Ryanne currently covers crime and public safety in Los Angeles for the Los Angeles Daily News.
Applications for the annual internship program open every fall.
This program, and all of our programming, requires funding to execute. We greatly appreciate donations of all sizes to allow the Society’s work to continue to nurture the skills and expertise of other future Pulitzer-recognized journalists. Support the Society’s work here.
