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12 Senior News Editors and Producers Selected for IRP’s Gatekeeper Trip to China

The International Reporting Project (IRP) has awarded 11 senior editors and producers from across the United States fellowships to participate in a two-week trip to China as part of the IRP’s annual “Gatekeeper Editors” trips.

Each year the IRP selects two groups of “Gatekeeper Editors” to travel to a country or region to learn more about critical global issues to help them improve their news organizations’ international coverage.

“China is arguably the most important country in the world for Americans to understand and it is vital that the U.S. media know how to cover China effectively,” said John Schidlovsky, director of the IRP, which is based in Washington at The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Editors selected for the China trip, scheduled for May 8-22, are:

William Dermody, Jr., world news editor, USA Today
Ann Derry, editorial director, video/TV, New York Times
Rana Foroohar, deputy editor, Newsweek
Christy George, senior producer, Oregon Public Broadcasting
Mark Higgins, metro editor, Seattle Times
Douglas Jehl, foreign editor, The Washington Post
George Judson, managing editor, “Marketplace”
Elizabeth Cheng Krist, senior photo editor, National Geographic
Trudy Rubin, foreign affairs columnist, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Stuart Seidel, deputy managing editor, news, National Public Radio
Peter Thomson, environment editor, “The World” PRI/BBC

The Gatekeepers will meet with a wide range of Chinese citizens and explore issues in economics, development, health, environment, education, agriculture, media and other areas. The China trip is the 13th IRP Gatekeepers trip since the program began in 2000. Previous IRP Gatekeeper editors have traveled to Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, Lebanon/Syria, India, Egypt, Nigeria, Korea, Uganda, Turkey, Kenya and Peru.

In addition to the Gatekeeper Fellowships, the IRP continues to offer individual fellowships to U.S. reporters to come to Washington and travel overseas on five-week reporting trips. These IRP Fellowships are offered in the fall of each year. Support for the IRP is provided by foundations, individuals and non-governmental donors.