About This Project
The United States is a country of immigrants. Even so, the debate over immigration has never been so intense. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, concerns about securing borders and screening immigrants have dramatically escalated. The in-depth coverage from the University of Southern California looks at how both people and policy have been impacted.
The USC News21 Fellows and Faculty also wish to thank California Connected (KCET) and Christina Wu for extra footage used in our stories, Lee Warner for Editing Assistance and Scott Shulman for Camera Assistance.
Biographies of News21 Fellows and Reporters
Laura Cavanaugh
Laura Cavanaugh recently earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the USC Annenberg School for Communication. She received her B.A. in Spanish and Business from the University of Michigan. Cavanaugh came to California from the Land of Enchantment, where she produced and edited at the NBC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a graduate student, she interned at ABC’s Primetime Live, Dateline NBC and just concluded a successful stint at ABC News in Los Angeles where she booked exclusives and helped produce stories for Nightline, World News Tonight and Good Morning America.
Diana Day
Diana Day just completed an M.A. in online journalism at the University of Southern California. While at USC, Diana was managing editor of the readers' blog at USC Annenberg’s Online Journalism Review. Before attending USC, Diana was a schoolteacher and reading specialist for 14 years in both Philadelphia and Pasadena. Diana earned a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Secondary Education, both from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Diana has launched two online news publications -- BeTwinned, a blog for parents of twins and multiples, and inSierraMadre.com, a community journalism site for Sierra Madre, CA. This fall, Diana will start working as the Internet and Communication Technologies Coordinator at Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena, CA. Diana plans to continue freelance reporting and writing.
William Etling
Born and raised in California's rural Central Coast, William Etling received his B.A. in Film from UC Santa Barbara in 2004 and his M.A. in Journalism from USC Annenberg in 2006.
Etling writes, photographs, designs websites and edits video, but only in that exact order.
His photojournalism portfolio is available at www.etling.com.
He can be reached at etling@gmail.com
Melanie Roe
Melanie Roe is completing a Master's in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Prior to attending graduate school, Melanie worked on John Kerry's presidential campaign as part of the advance staff in New Hampshire during the primary race, and as part of Senator Kerry's traveling staff during the general campaign. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2000 with a degree in Political Science and French. She grew up in Mexico City.
Nick Street
The grandson of two Southern Baptist ministers, I grew up in a small city in north Alabama. I studied Christian ethics as an undergraduate at Oberlin College and in seminary at Emory University.
After a brief stint in the doctoral program in religious ethics at the University of Virginia, I moved to New York City and began a career as a religion editor in the world of academic publishing. Since 1998 I've lived in California, where I encountered a teacher in the living lineage of Zen Buddhism. Then, as they say, the penny dropped. I ordained as a Soto Zen priest on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day).
In the summer of 2006 I worked as an intern at The Standard, an English-language, business-oriented newspaper in Hong Kong. I also visited about half a dozen sites associated with key figures in the Ch'an (Chinese Zen) Buddhist lineage.
As a contributing writer at The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, I've written profiles of Jewish astronomers, a gay rabbi who ministers to a prison shul, same-sex couples who have converted to Judaism, and Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of Gilligan's Island.
My main interests as a journalist are religion, astronomy, neuroscience and gay spirituality.
Biographies of News21 Editors
Patricia Dean
Patricia Dean joined Annenberg as Associate Director of the School of Journalism in 2003. She assists the Director of the journalism school, including first line responsibility for classes and faculty teaching issues. She teaches television news classes. Her research interests focus on local television news and reporting on public policy issues.
Dean joined USC from Northwestern University, where she taught for 16 years. She also served as Chair of the Broadcast News sequence for six years. Dean taught television news writing, reporting and producing, as well as a seminar on ethical issues facing decision makers in television newsrooms.
Dean was honored for her teaching in 1999 with the prestigious Northwestern Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award. She was nominated by the dean of the journalism school, current students and alumni.
Prior to joining Northwestern in 1987, Dean was a professional broadcast journalist for more than 18 years. She began her career in 1968 at WMAQ-TV (NBC) in Chicago as a news writer. She later worked at WLS-TV (ABC) as the producer of a consumer investigative unit and at WBBM-TV (CBS) as a producer and as Program Director.
A native of Chicago, Dean holds a Master's Degree in Communication Studies from the School of Speech at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from Iowa State University.
Her work has been honored with numerous awards, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Chicago Television Academy Emmy Awards, the Gavel Award of the American Bar Association, and the National Press Club Award for Best Consumer Journalism.
Judy Muller, Coordinator
Judy Muller, an Emmy Award-winning television correspondent and National Public Radio commentator, joined the faculty of the USC Annenberg School for Communication in August 2003, sharing her vast experience as a radio and television reporter with USC students.
Muller, who went to work for ABC News in 1990, covered the 1992 Rodney King trial and ensuing riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil trials, among other stories.
As part of a "Nightline" team, she received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots and an Emmy Award for coverage of the Simpson case.
A regular contributor to NPR's "Morning Edition," she also wrote a book about her experiences as a journalist titled "Now This -- Radio, Television and the Real World." Muller is also a contributing correspondent to "California Connected," a topical magazine broadcast that airs on public television stations throughout California.
Before joining the ABC News team, Muller was a CBS News correspondent who contributed to "CBS News Sunday Morning" and the "CBS Weekend News."
She did double duty on CBS News Radio, anchoring "First Line Report" and "Correspondent's Notebook." Muller was also a summer anchor for "The Osgood File."
Muller developed her individual reporting style during stints at The Colonial News and WHWH-WPST, both in New Jersey, and KHOW-AM in Colorado. She joined CBS News in 1981 and, during her nine years with the network, covered the space shuttle program, the 1988 political conventions and George H. W. Bush's presidential campaign.
She is a graduate of Mary Washington College and has received numerous journalism honors, including the New Jersey Broadcasters Association Award (1979), the American Bar Association Award (1980) and the Colorado Sigma Delta Chi Award (1981).
Robert Niles, Web Advisor
Robert Niles is the editor of the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review and an instructor in the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. Niles got sucked into Internet when computers and journalism collided in the early 1990s. A long-time math and computer geek, Niles turned to journalism after graduating from Northwestern University and deciding he couldn't stomach becoming a management consultant. But the lure of marathon coding sessions proved too strong. Niles soon quit his job writing editorials for a red-state newspaper, and he began making websites instead. Niles' Theme Park Insider has been named the top theme park site on the Internet by Forbes and Travel + Leisure magazines and has been a finalist for the Webby Award for best overall Guide/Ratings/Reviews site. In 2001, Theme Park Insider won the prestigious Online Journalism Award, presented by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Online News Association, for its pioneering citizen journalism initiative 'Accident Watch.' Theme Park Insider became the first Internet publication to win a major journalism award for a report researched and written entirely by its readers.
