News Fellows meet virtually and collaborate to report on climate change

Apr 1, 2022

Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager, Michigan Press Association, and the News Fellows meet with Sec. of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Zoom on March 15.

Focusing on climate change, Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager, Michigan Press Association, provided the tentative agenda for the News Fellow's day of virtual meetings, March 15, as shown below.

9 a.m. — Meeting with David Shepardson. Shepardson has covered the automobile industry for 11 years. He joined Reuters in 2015 and writes about the FCC, vehicle manufacturing and other regulatory issues. Shepardson is the former Washington Bureau Chief for the Detroit News. For 10 years, he worked as reporter, covering the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office and court system.

10 a.m. — Meeting with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. Congresswoman Dingell is from Dearborn, Michigan, and is a member of the House Energy Committee.

10:30 a.m. — Meeting with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm (pictured above).

11:15 a.m. — Meeting with Mentor Sandi Svoboda to start talking about story development.

12:00 p.m. — Lunch break.

1:00 p.m. — Meeting with JC Sandberg, Chief Advocacy officer at American Clean Power. Sandberg has more than two decades of legislative, regulatory and corporate experience and he has established himself as a policy expert and trusted voice on energy and infrastructure issues.

2:00 p.m. — Meeting again with Svoboda to finalize story ideas and get input.

Svoboda served as a mentor to the Fellows and worked with them throughout the day as they crafted stories.

Svoboda is currently the Great Lakes Now Program Director. Born in Chicago, college educated at Indiana University, and spending nearly her entire professional career in Michigan and Ohio, she’s traveled between Minnesota and Tadoussac, Quebec, both on the water and on land.

Svoboda's journalistic print, digital, broadcast and community engagement work has won awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Michigan Press Association, State Bar of Michigan, Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and Society of Professional Journalists’ metro Detroit chapter, and in 2018 the University of Michigan-Dearborn named her “Mentor of the Year.”