Julie K. Brown, Steven Waldman and award-winning investigative teams will explore accountability reporting and the future of local news at the free Nov. 17 symposium in Gainesville and online.
How did a Florida investigative reporter uncover the Jeffrey Epstein scandal? What will it take to sustain the business of local news? And how do investigations move from exposing wrongdoing to changing public policy?
Those questions will guide the 2026 Collier Prize Symposium, featuring Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown and Steven Waldman, president of Rebuild Local News, alongside the reporting teams recognized by this year’s Collier Prize awards.
The Nov. 17 event is free to attend in person in Gainesville or through livestream. Registration is required for either option.
Inside the Epstein investigation
Brown will bring the perspective of a journalist whose reporting helped turn a long-running abuse scandal into an international reckoning. Her 2018 Miami Herald investigation, “Perversion of Justice,” examined the handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s case and helped expose failures in the criminal justice system.
Over a 40-year career, Brown has reported on racial and human rights abuses and corruption in the justice system. Her honors include two George Polk Awards, a Robert F. Kennedy Award for Human Rights Reporting, the Columbia Journalism Award and PEN America’s Voice of Courage Award. She received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize board in April 2026.
A path forward for local news
Waldman will address the challenge of supporting the reporters who cover schools, city halls, businesses and civic life. He is the founder and president of Rebuild Local News, a coalition advocating for nonpartisan public policies to strengthen local journalism.
His organization’s work includes California’s Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act. The law is projected to direct more than $200 million over five years to local news outlets that hire or retain local journalists.
Waldman also co-founded Report for America, which places journalists in newsrooms across the United States. Before becoming an advocate for local journalism, he covered national politics for Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and Washington Monthly, and later wrote a Federal Communications Commission report on communities’ information needs.
The investigations behind the awards
The symposium will also take audiences inside the work of the 2026 Collier Prize winning teams, showing how journalists uncovered failures in public programs and pressed for accountability.
KARE 11 reporter A.J. Lagoe and producer Kelly Dietz will discuss “Housing Hustle,” their investigation into a major fraud scheme in Minnesota’s Medicaid-funded Housing Stabilization Services. The reporting led to indictments, resignations and convictions and won first place in the 2026 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability.
CalMatters reporters Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler will unpack “License to Kill,” which revealed that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles allowed drivers with histories of dangerous driving to remain behind the wheel. Some went on to kill, and some kept driving after fatal crashes. California lawmakers passed four bills in September addressing shortcomings identified by the series.
Lawrence Mower, Alexandra Glorioso and Justin Garcia of the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald will explain how they traced the diversion of $10 million from a Florida Medicaid fraud settlement to efforts opposing recreational marijuana and abortion-rights ballot measures. A state grand jury report released in September characterized the transfer as a misappropriation of funds.
Supporting state government accountability
The Collier Prize for State Government Accountability is funded through an $8 million endowment from Gainesville businessman Nathan S. Collier, founder and chairman of The Collier Companies. The program encourages investigative and political reporting focused on state institutions through an annual competition, the quarterly Collier Spotlight, a monthly newsletter and an annual survey of journalists and editors.
To hear the stories behind these investigations and join the discussion about local journalism’s future, register for the free Nov. 17 symposium.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here