FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Juliette Kayyem joins as contributor to WGBH Radio and TV, launches podcast “Security Mom”

Charlie Sennott’s GroundTruth Project showcases international news with local perspectives

WGBH News’ investigative team staffs up

BOSTON, Mass. (April 1, 2015) – Following three years of steady audience growth and one week after posting its highest monthly market share on record for radio in February, WGBH News is launching several new journalism projects and partnerships to offer local audiences greater depth and perspective for news in Boston. WGBH’s multi-platform newsroom will expand its depth of talent and expertise across investigative and international journalism, as well as a new focus on national security.

Juliette Kayyem Joins as Contributor, Launches Podcast “Security Mom”

Renowned international and homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem will join WGBH News as a contributor beginning April 1. She will bring her unique blend of expertise across domestic and international security, politics and law to WGBH News’ radio, TV and digital programming, including Morning Edition and Greater Boston. She will continue to appear regularly on 89.7 WGBH Radio’s Boston Public Radio with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.

Kayyem also will launch a new podcast, “Security Mom,” for WGBH News. Through her irreverent and informative insider's take on America's security challenges, she will host discussions and offer advice from her dual perspective as a security expert and mother. Kayyem will release a similarly themed book, Security Mom: Terrorists, Hurricanes, Oil Spills and Other Bedtime Stories, on Mother’s Day 2016 with Simon and Schuster. The podcast will begin airing in mid-April and be available at WGBHNews.org and on iTunes.

The GroundTruth Project to Present International News from a Local Angle

Beginning in April, WGBH News and The GroundTruth Project will co-produce a new series of monthly reports presenting international news with a local perspective. The reports, reported and produced by Elizabeth Ross from WGBH News and The Takeaway, will provide local context to stories uncovered by international reporting from GroundTruth. The editorial partnership will connect the many individuals who live in Boston’s local community whose experiences and impact have been felt around the globe. The first report will air in late April and is based on GroundTruth’s reporting from Afghanistan.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) Moves Operations to WGBH Newsroom; WGBH News Adds Isaiah Thompson to Investigative Team

Expanding a partnership that began in 2013, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) will be fully housed within the WGBH newsroom as of May 1. NECIR will continue its investigative journalism workshop for young journalists this summer and training will occur both at Boston University and WGBH.

NECIR has made several new reporting and managerial hires in recent months, including reporter Isaiah Thompson, who will report exclusively for NECIR and WGBH News, adding to both newsrooms’ resources dedicated to local investigative journalism.  Thompson starts at WGBH on April 6.  He is an experienced and award-winning reporter who has focused on investigative and public interest journalism for Pro Publica, This American Life, the Philadelphia City Paper and Miami New Times. He has been recognized with several prestigious journalism awards, including the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award and multiple awards from The Society of Professional Journalists.

“At a time when many local newsrooms are contracting or closing, WGBH News continues to grow,” said Phil Redo, WGBH general manager for radio and news. “We are excited to add new dimensions to WGBH News’ on-air and online reporting with expert individuals who will help us more fully explore the local issues that matter to Boston and make connections to topics that are closer to home than we realize.”

About Juliette Kayyem:

In government, the academy, private sector and journalism, Juliette Kayyem has served as a national leader in America’s homeland security efforts. Kayyem is founder of one of the few female-owned security businesses and has spent more than 15 years managing complex policy initiatives and organizing government responses to major crises in both state and federal government. Most recently, she was President Obama’s Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Before that, she was Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s homeland security advisor. She has also served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorism, a legal advisor to US Attorney General Janet Reno, and a trial attorney and counselor in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. She is a faculty member at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and has authored several books on homeland security. A long-standing CNN security analyst, she was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2013 for her columns in the Boston Globe. She is a board or advisory member of Mass Inc., the Boston 2024 Olympic Committee, the Red Cross of MA, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2014, Kayyem was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and the mother of three children, she is married to First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge David Barron. Her memoir, Security Mom: Terrorists, Hurricanes, Oil Spills and Other Bedtime Stories, will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2016. 

About The GroundTruth Project:

The GroundTruth Project is dedicated to training a new generation of international correspondents in the digital age and to adding increased knowledge and understanding on issues of social justice including human rights, freedom of expression, emerging democracies, the environment, religious affairs and global health. Headed by GlobalPost co-founder Charles M. Sennott, GroundTruth is committed to online publishing of ‘environments of understanding’ that enlighten and inform. GroundTruth publishes the narrative storytelling work of young reporting fellows and a network of correspondents as ‘Special Reports’ for GlobalPost and its editorial partners, including NBC News and NPR.org. GroundTruth also works with other editorial partners including WGBH, Public Radio International’s ‘The World,’ PBS FRONTLINE and PBS NewsHour. TheGroundTruthProject.org

About NECIR:

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at the studios of WGBH News in collaboration with Boston University. Its mission is to ensure the survival of serious, in-depth investigative journalism in New England and to train a new generation of investigative reporters. Founded in 2009 by Joe Bergantino and Maggie Mulvihill, two veteran Boston journalists, along with Boston University College of Communication Dean Tom Fiedler, NECIR aims to address the precipitous decline in investigative reporting and produces high-quality, high-impact multi-media investigative stories that require time and resources few mainstream news outlets can provide. NECIR stories appear in newspapers and on TV and radio stations across Massachusetts, New England and the nation. necir.org.

About WGBH

WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web. Television channels include WGBH 2, WGBX 44, and the digital channels World and Create. WGBH Radio serves listeners across New England with 89.7 WGBH Boston's Local NPR®; 99.5 WCRB; and WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR® Station. Find more information at wgbh.org.

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