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Loyola's 2024 Caulfield Lecture is "Tapped Out: Reporting on the Flint Water Crisis and Ongoing Water Issues" 

Two key journalists who uncovered the Flint water crisis and brought attention to the dangerous levels of lead in the city's drinking water will discuss their work, the challenges they faced while reporting, and the continuing issues for the community. Lindsey Smith, reporter for Michigan Public Radio, and Curt Guyette, investigative reporter for the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, will describe their reporting and answer questions from the audience. Their talk will be moderated by Professor Molly Robey.

Lindsey Smith

 Lindsey Smith helps lead the station's Amplify Team. She   previously served as Michigan Public's Morning News   Editor, Investigative Reporter and West Michigan Reporter.

 Lindsey co-wrote and co-hosted the 2018 Peabody award   winning podcast, Believed, about how former gymnastics   doctor Larry Nassar got away with sexual abuse for decades.

Her 2015 documentary about the Flint water crisis, Not Safe to Drink, won the station a national Edward R. Murrow Award, an Alfred I. duPont – Columbia University Award, and a Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Award. The Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists named her “Young Journalist of the Year” in 2014 and “Journalist of the Year” in 2018.
She’s a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and Specs Howard School of Media Arts.

Curt Guyette

Curt Guyette joined the ACLU of Michigan in the fall of 2013 as interim media liaison, and then made the transition to investigative reporter, a newly created position funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Now as editor at large, he writes about issues including emergency management to open government.

Prior to joining the ACLU of Michigan, Curt worked as a print journalist for more than 30 years, the last 18 of which were spent at the Metro Times, an alternative newsweekly based in Detroit. While there, the topics of his stories varied widely, from exposés that pulled back the curtain on political machinations to tales of individual struggles against systemic abuse. Along with a deep-seeded irreverence toward the powerful, his work has been shaped by compassion for the underdog, and a relentless desire to see justice — be it social, economic or environmental — served. Those values eventually led him to a job with the ACLU of Michigan.

A native of Pennsylvania, Curt graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in English writing. He is the recipient of numerous local, state and national journalism awards. The State Bar of Michigan has honored him three times for his outstanding coverage of legal issues.

 

About the Caulfield Lecture:

Now in its 34th year, the Caulfield Lecture series at Loyola was established by the family of Clarence J. Caulfield, a 1922 graduate who spent 26 years as an editor at The Baltimore Sun and was a mentor to such prominent writers as J. Anthony Lukas and Russell T. Baker. Hosted by the communication department, the Caulfield Lecture brings journalists and commentators of national stature to Loyola every year.

Event Information

Tuesday April 4, 2024

4th Floor Program Room at 5 p.m.

Host:

Masudul Biswas, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Communication

Welcome:

Masudul Biswas, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Communication

Moderator:

April Newton, Lecturer, Department of Communication

Panelists:

Lindsey Smith, Editor and Investigative Reporter

Curt Guyette, Editor, investigative reporter, print journalist.

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