CT SPJ 2024 Excellence in Journalism Contest winners

Each year, the Connecticut chapter of SPJ recognizes the best in Connecticut professional journalism with its Excellence in Journalism Contest. 

Business Reporting

Division A - Large
First Place
CT’s minimum wage increase poses challenges for small business owners
Maïna Durafour, Matt Corpuz and Kaily Martinez, CT Community News; UConn Journalism

The Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has inducted two members of the University of Connecticut's Journalism Department faculty into the Connecticut Journalism Hall of Fame: Assistant Professor-in-Residence Kate Farrish and Instructor-in-Residence Steven Kalb.

Farrish and Kalb were recognized during a May 21 event at Race Brook Country Club in Orange for their decades of significant contributions to Connecticut's news media landscape and their dedication to shaping the next generation of journalists. 

Farrish, a UConn alum from the class of 1983, counts over three decades of experience as a journalist and educator. Her career is marked by a persistent pursuit of public accountability and a deep commitment to open government. Farrish spent 23 years at the Hartford Courant, serving in various capacities including higher education reporter, bureau chief and city editor. 

Following her tenure at the Courant, Farrish continued her journalism work at the Connecticut Health Investigative Team (C-HIT). Her reporting at C-HIT tackled critical health-related issues, from opioid prescription violations and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery to elder abuse investigations. Notably, her 2018 investigative story on Connecticut nurses and addiction earned her a Publick Occurrences Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association, detailing accounts of nurses driven by addiction who committed crimes to support their habits.

As an educator, Farrish previously taught as a UConn adjunct instructor and as an assistant professor at Central Connecticut State University before returning to UConn full-time in January 2025.  Known for her high standards and real-world insights, she prepares students for the rigors of the profession. Her commitment to transparency extends to her leadership roles as president of the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government (CFOG) and a commissioner on the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission. She actively promotes FOIA as a vital tool for all citizens, fostering greater government accessibility.

Kalb brings over 35 years of experience in radio and television to his role as an Instructor-in-Residence at UConn, where he has been teaching since 2003. Kalb began his career in radio, gaining recognition as a reporter and talk show host for the Connecticut Radio Network. He covered high-profile cases, including the murder trial of Michael Skakel and the corruption trial of Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. His extensive television career included serving as a news director in major markets like Boston, as well as contributing to the launch and management of a 24-hour news operation in Philadelphia. Kalb's reporting style emphasizes "being there" for the story, such as his coverage of major Connecticut news events such as the Mianus River Bridge collapse and the L’Ambiance Plaza construction disaster.

Kalb's dedication to journalism is also reflected in his active involvement with professional organizations, having served twice as president of the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists and as state coordinator for the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Farrish and Kalb become the second and third members of the UConn Journalism Department faculty added to the Connecticut Journalism Hall of Fame. Former Department Head Maureen E. Croteau was inducted in 2017.

Brad Tuttle, an assistant professor in the UConn Journalism Department, gave a fascinating presentation in Storrs about how he incorporated the use of Artificial Intelligence in his Journalism Ethics course this semester.

Working in groups on reporting and writing a news story, his students used AI to brainstorm ideas, find sources to interview, write one version of a story, compare it to a version they wrote and to then edit their work. They also had to evaluate which uses were ethical or not. Their conclusion was that it was most useful and ethical to use AI to correct their grammar and spelling and to prepare questions before an interview, but not to ”put words in their mouths."

Brad was presenting as part of mAI dAI, a daylong workshop organized by UConn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Joe La Puma serves as SVP of Content Strategy at Complex NTWRK and hosts Complex’s "Sneaker Shopping," the world’s No. 1 sneaker show, which has garnered over 1 billion views on YouTube. He has been at the forefront of sneaker and street culture at Complex for the past 15 years.

La Puma started his journalism career writing for The Daily Campus and was voted “Rookie of the Year” by fellow staffers.

“Over a six-month period, I wrote dozens of articles for the Daily Campus and went from ‘Campus Correspondent’ to ‘Staff Writer.’ Although I only wrote for one year, I was focused on making up for lost time. And at the end of the year, I was voted ‘Rookie of the Year’ by my peers at the paper. Yes, I was the senior who won ‘Rookie of the Year.’ I could’ve been embarrassed at being the old guy who won the award meant for freshmen, but it was the most substantial thing I had done at UConn until that point, and it meant a ton to me. So much so that I still bring the laminated certificate with me when I have big moments that make me nervous. True story.”

After graduating from UConn in 2005 with a degree in Journalism, he returned to Bay Shore to manage a sneaker store, The Finish Line —where he previously worked in high school—while contributing articles to both local and global publications like Newsday and Hypebeast.com.

In 2006, La Puma landed an internship at Complex magazine, a pop culture publication specializing in convergence culture through hip-hop, sneakers, and fashion. La Puma has written more cover stories (21) than any other writer in Complex history, including profiles on Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Kid Cudi. La Puma is also a published author of the book “Complex Presents: Sneaker of the Year: The Best Since ’85.”

In his current SVP role, La Puma has led Complex to over 200% growth in audience and engagement. In 2014, Complex debuted the YouTube show Sneaker Shopping, a series that La Puma created and hosts to this day. Over the past decade of Sneaker Shopping, La Puma has interviewed icons like Eminem, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg, Billie Eilish, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, and conducted one of the only lifestyle interviews with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2020 election cycle.

The show has filmed episodes across the U.S., as well as abroad in China, England, Spain, and Japan. With his extensive editorial work on footwear and over 300 episodes of Sneaker Shopping, La Puma is regarded as one of the foremost sneaker experts in the world. La Puma is a three-time Webby Award winner and has been featured on Good Morning America, and The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

In 2024, La Puma was inducted into the Bay Shore High School Hall of Fame, a group that includes only 79 members since the school opened in 1893. La Puma currently lives in Brooklyn, and takes half-days at work when he can during UConn Basketball March Madness runs.

La Puma will address CLAS graduates at the 5:30 p.m ceremony, which includes UConn Journalism majors.

Below is a picture from La Puma's visit to UConn in November 2023, where he spoke with a large class of journalism students and faculty.

Remarks delivered by UConn Journalism Professor in Residence Gail MacDonald on May 1, 2025 during the department's annual scholarship awards ceremony.

First, let me congratulate all the student award recipients. You are truly the promise of a great future for journalism.

Most of you here this evening know the love I have for journalism. I’ve practiced it professionally since I began my first newspaper reporting job at age 19. For many years, I also had the privilege of working full time with students, with whom I hope I helped spark this same love of journalism. I retired from my full-time position here at UCONN on Jan. 1.

While most of you know me as a journalist and journalism instructor, fewer of you may be aware of a second love of mine - history. I’ve written two local history books and am now researching and writing a book focusing on 19th century Black abolitionists and activists from New England and New York.

I have this photo of Frederick Douglass here because, although a detailed profile of him is not included in my book, most of you are likely familiar with him. He was one of the few historic Black figures most of us learned about in school.

But are you familiar at all with these people who will be included in my book?

John Brown Russwurm, who lived for many years in Maine and was the first Black graduate from Bowdoin college. In 1827, he helped establish the country’s first Black-run newspaper, an abolitionist paper called Freedom’s Journal.

William Cooper Nell of Boston, who as a teenager stood outside in a snowstorm watching a group of men inside a Boston meeting house as they formed an anti-slavery organization. He worked for 35 years for the country’s foremost abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, which was put out by William Lloyd Garrison.

David Ruggles, who grew up in Norwich, Connecticut, then moved to Manhattan where he regularly prowled the city’s wharves in search of escaping slaves he could help to safety. It was Ruggles who first helped Frederick Douglass establish himself as a self-emancipated free man. Ruggles also wrote and published in 1835 a controversial pamphlet that unabashedly pointed out how the regular sexual violence slave owners imposed on their enslaved women violated the seventh commandment.

Pelleman Williams, who married Mary Harris of Norwich and moved his family to New Orleans during the height of the Civil War to help educate newly freed slaves and establish the first college for Blacks in that city. In 1865, he and a group of other Black residents established The Black Republican, a newspaper by and for the city’s residents of color. The paper served both as an important vehicle for information about the Black community and as a means to encourage literacy.

These are just a few of the untiring and courageous men and women I’ve come to learn about in my research over the past months. I’ve also come to understand that, although these individuals whose accomplishments in the face of enormous odds are so deserving of our knowledge and understanding, instead their lives were nearly erased from our history for many decades.

In many cases, what led them to be rediscovered, at least by some educators and historians and people such as myself, is the power of the written word. Many were journalists themselves, for example, as I’ve already pointed out.

But also there was another group who aided mightily in helping spread public knowledge about them and also is helping my research. Those are the journalists who have written about these people through the years. They strove to inform and educate the public with the truth and, in the process, keep the legacies and achievements of these people alive.

And that is what now raises some concerns for me. Currently, our profession is under attack as never before and I wonder whether future researchers such as myself will be aided by the enlightening work of journalists? As newsrooms shrink, the number of news deserts grows and corporate owners turn their backs on journalistic responsibilities, will journalism continue to produce the so-called “first rough draft of history,” as former Washington Post publisher Donald Graham (or maybe it was another sage newspaper person) is supposed to have said?

Our challenges also go beyond these. Journalists face a president who has called them and their mission to hold truth to power “enemies of the people.” He openly mocked a disabled reporter, barred an Associated Press reporter from the White House because the AP refused to bow to demands to call the body of water off western Florida the Gulf of America and is seeking ways to pull the license from CBS news because he didn’t like some of its coverage. Some segments of the media also regularly peddle lies and offer no evidence of being true to journalism’s most sacred responsibility to report the truth.

I know enough about history to understand that despite the entrenchment of Freedom of the Press in the constitution, there have been attempts to silence and censor the press since the earliest days of the country. There also are plenty of historic examples of some spectacular breaches of the public’s trust on the part of journalists - Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair come to mind.

For years I taught the Journalism Ethics course for this department. I enjoyed the classroom discussions about journalism’s ethical responsibilities: seek the truth and report it, minimize harm for our sources, be a voice for the voiceless, hold power accountable, be transparent about how we work and where we get our information, be a watchdog over government wrongdoing, and act independently.

It is heartening to see that, despite our shrinking numbers, contemporary journalists continue to produce some of the best work ever. Just a few examples are recent pieces enlightening the public about missing Black girls in Chicago, influence peddling at the Supreme Court, communities devastated by wildfires and flooding and the use of migrant child labor in the U.S. It is especially promising to see dedicated future journalists such as those here this evening, who I’m confident will strive to uphold the professional ethics and moral obligations of journalism.

But what about those people I’ve been researching? Some now in power would like to see them again be disappeared. Are we as journalists strong enough to fight back so future generations will learn a more balanced view of history in our elementary, middle and high school classrooms than I ever did? These people I’m researching deserve to be known, just as are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and countless white historical figures.

Harvard University’s president Alan Garber in a recent statement concerning that institution’s fight against heavy-handed governmental threats, had these words that I would also apply to the need to protect journalism and ensure it flourishes: “Freedom of thought and inquiry, along with the government’s longstanding commitment to respect and protect it, has enabled universities (and we might substitute “journalism” there) to contribute in vital ways to a free society and to healthier, more prosperous lives for people everywhere. All of us share a stake in safeguarding that freedom. We proceed now, as always, with the conviction that the fearless and unfettered pursuit of truth liberates humanity.”

Steven G. Smith, an award-winning multimedia storyteller and professor in the Department of Journalism, has been named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow for 2025, joining just 25 other scholars nationally in receiving the prestigious honor for researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

Each fellow will receive $200,000 for research focusing on subjects related to political polarization, with the aim of eventually producing a book or other major study, the Carnegie Corporation of New York announced Wednesday.

“Receiving the Carnegie Fellowship is an honor, and I’m excited to continue working on ‘These United States,’ my long-term documentary photo essay exploring American identity in the 21st century,” says Smith, who won a Pulitzer Prize for photography as part of the Rocky Mountain News photo essay team that was honored in 2003. “The fellowship will provide invaluable time and resources to develop the project further and share stories from across the country. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity and for the support provided by the Carnegie Foundation and the University of Connecticut.”

Smith, whose previous work includes the award-winning documentary films “The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Journey” and “One World, One People,” has already been working on his current project for a year and a half, traveling the U.S. and documenting its people in photography.

“My perspective as a visual journalist is to see what our country looks like right now,” Smith says. “It’s a portrait of America at the time of its 250^th birthday.”

Visual media like photography and film offer a chance to examine complicated and emotionally charged subjects with unique nuance, Smith says, which is partly what drew him to the project.

“I’m a big believer in a wide variety of approaches,” he says. “Human beings are complex, and photography and visual communication can bring these subtleties and details to the surface that might otherwise be overlooked.”

Smith is just the second UConn faculty member to receive a Carnegie fellowship; Yonatan Morse, associate professor of political science, became the first in 2020.

Under the leadership of Carnegie president Dame Louise Richardson, the 2025 class marks the second year of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program’s focus on building a body of research focused on political polarization. Carnegie will commit up to $18 million to this effort over the three-year period.

The winning proposals approach polarization through a wide array of disciplines and methods. Projects include analyzing the causes of the increasing political divides between men and women; assessing where Americans find common ground when it comes to their health; and understanding how partisan media, consultants, and entertainment industries are driving polarization for short-term profits, among other areas of research.

“Through these fellowships Carnegie is harnessing the unrivaled brainpower of our universities to help us to understand how our society has become so polarized,” says Richardson. “Our future grantmaking will be informed by what we learn from these scholars as we seek to mitigate the pernicious effects of political polarization.”

The focus on political polarization attracted more than 300 applications for the fellowship. A panel of jurors, chaired by Richardson and comprised of current and former leaders from some of the nation’s preeminent institutions, made the final selections. They prioritized proposals based on the originality and promise of the research, its potential impact on the field, and the applicants’ plans for communicating the findings to a broad audience.

Smith says the final shape of his project is still to be determined, but envisions possibilities like a book and exhibition of the work.

“I’d like to see this project be less overtly political and more a celebration of who we are,” Smith says. “Sometimes, when you’re out taking the pulse of the country, it can be a little frightening. But as I get out and shake hands and meet people and learn about their lives, I see a lot of kindness. That’s been very healing, to meet all these wonderful people and try to get just a little bit of their story.”

Founded in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides the most generous stipend of its kind for research in the humanities and social sciences. To date, Carnegie has named almost 300 fellows, representing a philanthropic investment of more than $59 million. Congressional testimony by past fellows has addressed topics such as social media and privacy protections, transnational crime, governmental responses to pandemics, and college affordability. Fellows have received honors including the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award.