‘The gold standard of fellowships’: Scripps journalists eager to create impact
Journalist Ayurella Horn-Muller was freelancing for theMiami New Times when she first heard about the Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at 鶹ѰBoulder.
It was eight years ago, and she was just getting her start in journalism. Horn-Muller covered local politics, arts and culture, but found herself drawn to environmental stories. When a mentor told her about the fellowship, the program became an aspiration she carried with her for years.
Ayurella Horn-Muller moderating a panel on the current state of food rescue at the 2026 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by ReFED
This fall, she’s getting her wish: Horn-Muller, a staff writer at Grist, is among five journalists selected to this year’s fellowship.
“I cherish this opportunity. I’m not going to waste a single minute of it,” Horn-Muller said. “It’s always been, in my mind, the gold standard of fellowships in the journalism world.”
The Ted Scripps fellowships provide journalists education, professional development and support to produce exemplary reporting on environmental issues. The fellowship—which is housed in the Center for Environmental Journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information—offers journalists opportunities to hone their craft while spending a year auditing classes, attending seminars and pursuing an independent project.
Horn-Muller, whose reporting for the last four years has focused on climate change, food and agriculture, plans to look beyond the visible effects of environmental change to investigate how the climate crisis reveals deeper stories about ourselves.
“A fellowship like Ted Scripps offers something a newsroom can’t—time to sit with a project or subject instead of just reacting to the daily news cycle,” said Horn-Muller, whose work has appeared in national outlets such as CNN,National Geographic,The Guardian,El País andThe Atlantic. She also is the author ofDevoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South, a nonfiction environmental science book.
Her long-form investigative piece will examine what happens to a community's sense of identity when climate change disrupts the crop that defines a place. As inspiration, she mentioned the town of Yauco, in Puerto Rico—famous for its coffee farms, which were decimated during Hurricane Maria in 2017.
She will spend the academic year researching various communities whose history and economy revolve around agriculture, including Vidalia sweet onion farmers in Georgia and winter lettuce farmers in Arizona. Horn-Muller hopes to expose the cultural and psychological dimensions of the climate crisis, delving into concepts of place attachment and ecological grief.
“Journalism isn’t just about holding people in positions of power accountable,” she said. “It’s about creating a space for those without.”
This years Ted Scripps fellowship class. Jenae Barnes (upper left), Sam Brasch (upper middle), Amanda Eggert (upper right), Ayurella Horn-Muller (lower left) and Sam Price-Waldman (lower right).
This year’s group of journalists will comprise the 30th class of Scripps fellows at CMDI. Horn-Muller will be joined by Jenae Barnes, Sam Brasch, Amanda Eggert and Sam Price-Waldman.
Barnes is an award-winning journalist covering issues at the intersection of public health, environmental justice and the lived experiences of Black communities. As a fellow, she plans to research links between environmental justice issues and socioeconomic status in the U.S. and abroad.
Brasch is a public radio reporter and Colorado native who covers climate and environmental issues for Colorado Public Radio News. As a Scripps fellow, Brasch plans to study the history and science of air quality to produce podcasts and other long-form radio projects.
Eggert is an environmental journalist based in Bozeman, Montana, who focuses on housing affordability, land use and drought. Her time at CMDI will focus on the decline of Montana’s cold-water fisheries and policies that can combat that regression.
Price-Waldman, a documentary filmmaker, has produced character-driven reporting projects for HBO, Netflix, Showtime,The Atlantic, PBS andNational Geographic. As a fellow, he will explore the emotional dimensions of environmental change and human relationships to the natural world.
“We are thrilled to welcome this cohort of fellows to the CEJ,” said Hong Tien Vu, associate professor of journalism and faculty director of CEJ. “Together, they reflect the full complexity of the environmental challenges our world is facing. I cannot wait to see what they produce during their time here.”
Ellie Chase is studying journalism at CMDI, with a minor in business. She covers students and student news at the college.