About Us

Nick Penniman is the Executive Director of both the American News Project and the new Huffington Post Investigative Fund.  Before conceiving and starting the American News Project, Nick Penniman served as the Washington Director of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, the publisher of The Washington Monthly, the editor of TomPaine.com, the program director of the Campaign for America's Future, the associate editor of the American Prospect magazine, the director of the Alliance for Democracy and the editor of the Lincoln Journal. Over the course of his career, he has focused primarily on exposing political corruption, exploring the power and impact of corporate globalization, heralding the rise of independent media, challenging the decline of civic mindedness, and bringing attention to the intersection of public health and the environment. He has served on multiple nonprofit boards, including the Homeless Empowerment Project and the Roosevelt Institution. He graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in philosophy. He grew up in St. Louis and currently lives in Maryland with his wife and three children.

For more than ten years, Emmy Award winning journalist David Murdock has produced documentaries with the likes of Bill Moyers, Hedrick Smith, David Fanning, and David Grubin. His work, which includes investigative reporting for Frontline, historical research for The American Experience, and natural history programming for National Geographic Television, has been nominated three times for Emmy Awards. In 2008, Murdock won a producing Emmy for Outstanding Science, Technology, and Nature programming in recognition for his work on the PBS series, The Mysterious Human Heart. Before becoming a broadcast producer, Murdock was a teacher and director for eight years at the Educational Video Center in New York City.  At EVC, he trained inner city youth to create documentaries dealing with issues of importance to their lives.  To this day, he remains active with EVC and its graduates. In addition to his work at PBS, Murdock has also been a staff producer with National Geographic Television, shooting and producing stories all over the world -- from Bolivian silver mines to Australian billabongs.  Prior to joining the American News Project, Murdock reported from the Congo for Bill Moyers Journal about humanitarian efforts taking place to rebuild that war-torn nation. He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English literature.

Harry Hanbury is a producer, editor, cameraman, and writer. Before ANP, he worked with a wide variety of public interest groups to produce award-winning documentaries.  In 2000, Hanbury produced documentary shorts for the Discovery Channel, filming in South Africa, the Bahamas, and Galapagos. And from 1998 to 2004, he worked with six Hollywood studios to produce dozens of shorts featuring Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt, Ray Romano, and a long list of other celebrities. Hanbury’s career started in 1993, after receiving a B.A. in philosophy and sociology from New College of Florida.

Garland McLaurin has worked in the area of television and film for nine years. Prior to the American News Project, McLaurin has produced worked for Verizon Fios 1, National Geographic and Retirement Living Channel. McLaurin holds a B.A. in radio-TV-film from Howard University and studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the M.F.A. film program. He has taught classes on film in South Africa and at Howard University and has received grants for his work from DC Commission of the Arts and the Princess Grace Foundation.

Before joining the American News Project, Danielle Ivory worked with Bill Moyers as a senior fellow and research director at the Schumann Center for Media & Democracy and Public Affairs Television. In the past, she has worked as a production assistant with Weekend Edition Sunday on National Public Radio and as a reporter for The Nation, one of Thailand's national English-language newspapers. Ivory holds an M.Phil in modern history from the University of Oxford, where she wrote her dissertation on the history of car accidents, and an A.B. in history from Princeton University.  Her videos and writing have appeared on Democracy Now, The Nation, Alternet, Truthout, and The Huffington Post. You can follow her on twitter.

Mike Fritz is a journalist based in Washington D.C. Before joining the American News Project, he worked as an online video producer for the Associated Press, political researcher for NBC’s Today Show and a production assistant for Tom Brokaw’s documentary “The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat.” Fritz has also spent time in print as a general assignment reporter for the Daily Nebraskan and a contributing editor of the Spokane Sidekick Magazine. He graduated with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Communications from the University of Nebraska in 2005.

Lagan is a multimedia journalist based in D.C. He has a masters in journalism and public policy from American University. His thesis documentary from AU, Busco Personas: Faces from Colombia's War, won the audience award for best short documentary at the 2008 AFI Film Festival. In 2008 Lagan also won The Merriman Award, The Jack Jury Award, and American University's Vision's Award- all for excellence in journalism. Lagan has previously reported for WAMU (Washington D.C.'s NPR) and Current TV among others. Lagan served in the United States Peace Corps and is a published fiction writer.

Joan Konner, Chair: Dean Emerita and Professor Emerita of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Long-time TV producer and documentary filmmaker. Producer of more than 50 documentaries and many television series. Recipient of 16 Emmy Awards, the Peabody and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

Leo Hindery, Jr.: Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners. Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation, a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Director of the Paley Center for Media and Teach for America, a Member of the Board of Visitors of the Columbia School of Journalism, and former Chairman of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) and C-SPAN.

Fran Rodgers: Entrepeneur and independent media advocate. Founder of the corporate consulting firm WFD. Named one of the 25 most influential working mothers in the America by Working Mother magazine. Recipient of the Columbus Award for Discovery from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. National Winner of Entrepeneur of the Year Award in Social Responsibility (Inc Magazine and Ernst and Young.)

Hedrick Smith: Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and editor. Producer and correspondent of more than 20 award-winning PBS prime time specials and miniseries. Author of several national best-selling books, including "The Russians" and "The Power Game: How Washington Works."