Nora Grace-Flood photo
The Lamberton encampment, cleared by the state.
Maya McFadden Photo
Math teacher Charity Ann Chambers helps students "embrace mistakes."
Thomas Breen photos
August 2023 anti-eviction rally.
Independent reporters placed first in five hyperlocal 2023 Mark of Excellence reporting categories: Breaking News, Continuing Coverage, Education, Government, and Reporting Series.
The Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of the 2023 Mark of Excellence awards last week.
Nora Grace-Flood won in Breaking News for her coverage of the bulldozing of the Lamberton Bridge encampment; Thomas Breen, Laura Glesby, and Grace-Flood were awarded in the Continuing Coverage category for their reporting on local evictions; and education reporter Maya McFadden received first place in Education for her story from inside Ms. Chambers’ ninth grade math class at First Achievement Amistad High School, where Algebra 1 doesn’t have to be scary.
Breen and Glesby placed first in both Government reporting and Reporting Series for their work breaking and following the story of a city official placed on leave for reporting “suspicious” immigrant marriages to federal officials.
The Independent also placed third in Arts & Entertainment (for Breen’s story about New Haven’s porno theater), second in Feature Story (for Paul Bass’s story about a bottle collector with a change in plans), second in Investigative (for Glesby’s reporting of an alder’s hit and run), and third place in Local Reporting, for Glesby’s end-of-year story about three men who spent decades in prison due to wrongful convictions.
WNHH Radio and station manager Harry Droz received both second and third place in the hyperlocal Podcasting category: second for an episode of Dateline New Haven with Proud Boys attorney Norm Pattis, and third for an episode of LoveBabz LoveTalk with Babz Rawls-Ivy featuring the American Modern Opera Category.
The Online Journalism Project-affiliated Valley Independent Sentinel won first in the hyperlocal Investigative category and third in the In-Depth category for Jean Falbo-Sosnovich’s story about a Seymour cop with a long disciplinary record who was permitted to retire in good standing. The Valley Indy also placed top-three in the Breaking News and Government categories, the latter for its coverage of the 2023 municipal elections.
See the full list of winners here.