The Los Angeles Press Club proudly announces the inaugural recipients of the Charles M. Rappleye Investigative Journalism Award.
The grant, established in honor of longtime Los Angeles-based editor and journalist, Charles Rappleye, aims to support next-level investigative research for ongoing projects.
Rappleye, who died in 2018 at the age of 62, was widely known for his work at LA Weekly and LA CityBeat, as well as his series of non-fiction books such as the 2006 work “Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution,” which was awarded the George Washington Book Prize. He also co-founded, with his wife, Tulsa Kinney, LA’s respected art magazine, Artillery.
The recipients are:
Caitlin Antonios, a graduate of UC Irvine and Columbia University’s graduate journalism program, Antonios is a staff member of Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation’s Documenting COVID-19 project. With the mission of collecting public records related to the COVID-19 pandemic from government agencies across the country, the project has generated vast amounts of material for journalists and academics to research the impact of COVID-19. As the project’s point person in California, Antonios has used the PRA to explore issues of vaccine equity and distribution throughout the state and published a series of articles on the subject in CalMatters.com in both English and Spanish.
Eric Pape is an investigative reporter, editor, and adjunct faculty at the Annenberg School for Journalism at USC. His career has taken him to five continents, including as a Europe-based correspondent for Newsweek International. His writing has also appeared in the L.A. Times’ Sunday magazine, the Daily Beast, The New York Times, and The Guardian, among others. CRIJA is helping to fund Pape’s multi-part investigation into vaccine hesitancy in local communities in California.
In the spirit of Rappleye’s work and interests, the fund encourages projects about law enforcement, immigration and the border, local government and public corruption, the media, civil rights and labor rights, organized crime, U.S. policy and involvement in Latin America and the history of Alta California.
For those interested in supporting the CRIJA, the Los Angeles Press Club is accepting fully tax-deductible donations to support freelance journalists’ investigative reporting — much needed in this era of reduced news staffs and budgets.
Get more information about applying for the grant.
Make a donation to the grant fund.
