Investigative Journalism: Holding the Corrupt and Powerful Accountable

Join us on for this LUNCHEON LECTURE which features an exclusive presentation and Q&A session with JULIE K. BROWN, author of the New York Times’ Bestseller, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story, and DAVID BOARDMAN, Dean, Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University...

Julie K. Brown has been credited with re-opening the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case with a series of stories published in the Miami Herald in November 2018. Brown’s investigation began in 2017 -- almost a decade after Epstein had sexually abused young girls at his Palm Beach mansion. Brown discovered that he and his lawyers had successfully pressured the U.S. Attorney’s Office to cover up the scope of his crimes, resulting in a secret deal of immunity that led him to serve very little jail time. Brown reached out to 80 victims (many of whom were as young as 13 and 14 years old when the crimes happened) and convinced them to tell their stories. Her work led the FBI to reopen the case -- and as a result, Epstein was arrested, the U.S. secretary of labor was forced to resign -- and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested and convicted on charges of sex trafficking of minors. In the aftermath of Epstein’s death, more than 200 victims filed claims with his estate, which collectively paid out more than $100 million in damages to his survivors. In July 2020, Brown’s book, Perversion of Justice, based on her reporting on the Epstein case, was published by William Morrow and Company. The book served as the foundation for a limited series on HBO, executive produced by Kevin Messick and Adam McKay.

Ms. Brown is currently a visiting professor in residence at Klein College’s Jonathan Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting which is focused on issues facing Philadelphia and other large American cities, including gun violence, economic institutions. Through the Logan Center, Klein students and faculty report aggressively not only exclusively on the inequality, education and health disparities, crumbling infrastructure and eroding trust in on these problems, but on potential solutions, closely examining what has worked well in other cities across the nation and the globe.

David Boardman is Dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has academic and financial responsibility for one of the largest and most comprehensive programs of its kind, with some 2,500 students and 200 faculty members. Since joining the college in 2013, Boardman has led major strategic initiatives that have raised its profile, resources and standing. This year, Boardman was named Scripps Howard Administrator of the Year by his peers in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Klein College has received many recent accolades, including the nation’s top Equity and Diversity Award from AEJMC, the Temple University Television, a Klein-led enterprise, was named the nation’s best college television station by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System. Previously, Boardman was executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times, the largest news organization in the Pacific Northwest. Under his leadership, The Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and produced 10 Pulitzer finalists.

Boardman personally has been the recipient of numerous other major national awards, including the National Ethics Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Reporting from Harvard University, the Worth Bingham Prize in Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and the Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service Award.

Mr. Boardman is founding chair of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the nonprofit that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer. He also chairs the nonprofit news site The Markup, which is focused on the nexus of technology and society, and Spotlight PA, a nonprofit investigative site. He is the immediate past chair of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and is a member of its Executive Committee. He is also vice chair of the Solutions Journalism Network, and serves on the boards for the American Society of News Editors Foundation and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. He sits on the advisory boards of ProPublica, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and Investigative Reporting Denmark. Boardman serves on the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and is a past president. Boardman has conducted seminars for journalists in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa and Turkey.