The Pulitzer Center announced on Apr. 1 that Stephanie Zimmermann of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Public Media, along with freelance journalist Wendy Wei, have been selected as recipients of the 2026 Richard C. Longworth Media Fellowships.
Zimmermann will travel to Lithuania to report on its role as a front-line member of NATO and its economic and cultural connections to the Midwest. She will be accompanied by Sun-Times photojournalist Ashlee Rezin. Wei plans to report from Germany on migrant health care, focusing on lessons that Illinois and other Midwestern states might draw from the German approach.
The Longworth Media Fellowships are designed to connect readers in the Midwest with international stories that have an impact on their daily lives. The program addresses a gap left by financial pressures that have led regional media outlets to reduce or eliminate foreign correspondent positions. Nonprofit organizations such as Chicago Public Media and Capitol News Illinois are working to fill this void.
Zimmermann is recognized for her investigative reporting on consumer issues including credit, debt, insurance, food safety, housing, health care, transportation, technology risks, unsafe products, scams and frauds. She has also covered topics related to mental health within the criminal legal system.
Wei is an independent journalist whose work focuses on migrants and marginalized communities competing for limited resources. She leads data journalism training at the Investigative Project on Race and Equity and has received two Peter Lisagor Awards for her print and audio reporting.
The fellowships are supported each year by a grant from the Clinton Family Fund in honor of Richard C. Longworth—a former foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune who now serves as Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
