New York, July 11, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists is pleased to announce that Lucy Westcott has joined CPJ as the 2018 James W. Foley Fellow. During her fellowship, Westcott will focus on safety issues for women journalists in non-hostile environments.
The James W. Foley Fellowship is awarded annually to an individual who is passionate about the issues of journalist safety and freedom of expression. The fellowship–created in honor of American journalist James Foley, who was killed in Syria in 2014–is a one-year position, with support from the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation.
The Foley Fellow serves as an integral part of CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team. Each fellow conducts independent research that advances the safety of journalists and supports the wider CPJ mission.
“We are excited to have Lucy join us as CPJ’s Foley Fellow this year,” said María Salazar-Ferro, CPJ’s emergencies director. “Female journalists experience their own unique set of security challenges, and we look forward to working on creative and useful solutions to the issues women working in non-hostile environments face.”
Prior to joining CPJ, Westcott was a staff writer for Newsweek, where she covered gender and immigration. She has reported for outlets including The Intercept, Bustle, The Atlantic, and Women Under Siege, and was a United Nations correspondent for the Inter Press Service. As a fellow with the International Reporting Project in 2016, Westcott wrote about gender and development in South Africa and Lesotho.
For more information on CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team, click here. A full list of CPJ staff is available on our website.