Two reporters from the Illinois Answers Project will take part in The New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship, a yearlong program designed to develop early-career reporters focusing on accountability journalism.
Reporters Sidnee King and Cam Rodriguez will join The New York Times for the next year where they will work with Times’ editors, including former executive editor Dean Baquet, on an investigative project they each pitched. They will remain in Chicago and will rejoin the Illinois Answers newsroom at the end of the program. Illinois Answers plans to co-publish the work they produce during the fellowship.
King starts April 15 and Rodriguez starts Sept. 9. They are part of a 10-person fellowship class and are the only reporters based in Illinois.
King joined the Illinois Answers Project in late 2020 as an investigative reporter covering how communities of color are affected by government action in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois. You can read her work on equity here. King is a native of metro Detroit with an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a master’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
Rodriguez joined the newsroom in May 2023 and is responsible for requesting, compiling and organizing data from hundreds of taxing bodies across Illinois to publish the newsroom’s two databases: public salaries and public pensions. Rodriguez previously was a data and graphics reporter at Chalkbeat. Rodriguez is from Chicago and holds degrees in journalism from DePaul University.
Ruby Bailey, Illinois Answers editor in chief, congratulated King and Rodriguez and said she is looking forward to seeing the impact of their work.
“We celebrate Cam and Sidnee’s achievements in securing this prestigious fellowship,” she said. “This recognition underscores our commitment to newsroom diversity and providing investigative reporting opportunities for journalists of color.”
