Washington, DC – Twelve German journalists, eight reporters from the U.S. and two media professionals from Canada have been selected for the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship.

The prestigious program, now in its 28th year, offers highly skilled journalists from both sides of the Atlantic the opportunity to travel and report from each other’s countries. Through this exchange, participants learn and share professional skills with one another, and gain experience working abroad as “foreign correspondents” for their home news organizations.

Founded in 1988, the program annually offers outstanding media professionals age 40 and under the opportunity to report from and travel in each other's countries. The fellowship was expanded in 1990 to include U.S. journalists and in 2013 to include Canadian reporters.

“In times of reduced budgets, but an increasing amount of international crises and challenging developments, it is crucial to let younger journalists experience foreign reporting first hand,” said Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling, Director of the Internationale Journalisten Programme (IJP) and Burns President. “Just look at the development of Germany alone over the last nearly 30 years: fellows were able to experience the Cold War, see East and West Germany merge and unite, witness the introduction of the euro and, now, report on the role of Germany in the center of the European Union… There have been so many stories to watch and to tell.”

After an orientation in Washington, D.C., participants will travel to host news organizations that are assigned on the basis of professional compatibility with each fellow’s interests.

The program is jointly administered by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in the United States and the Internationale Journalisten-Programme (IJP) in Germany.

The 2015 German Burns Fellows are:

• Pia Dangelmayer, investigative research at ARD and Puls in Munich;
• Nora Gantenbrink, editor of stern in Hamburg;
• Martin Gropp, staff reporter and news desk editor at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Frankfurt;
• Volker ter Haseborg, Reporter-at-Large at Bilanz in Hamburg;
• Maris Hubschmid, Editor of Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin;
• Marie-Astrid Langer, Foreign Editor of Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Zurich;
• Andrea Maurer, editor of Aspekte, ZDF in Berlin;
• Annett Meiritz, staff writer at Spiegel Online in Berlin;
• Lisa Nienhaus, staff reporter at Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Frankfurt;
• Julia Smirnova, Moscow-based correspondent for Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag;
• Dominik Stawski, reporter and editor at stern in in Hamburg;
• Florian Willershausen, international chief reporter at WirtschaftsWoche in Berlin.

The 2015 U.S. Burns Fellows are:

• David Blanchard, producer at Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, OR;
• Eliot Brown, real estate reporter at The Wall Street Journal in New York;
• Emmarie Huetteman, junior reporter at The New York Times in Washington, D.C.;
• Carl Jaeger, producer at KMSP-TV in Minneapolis, MN;
• Max Rosenthal, reporter at Mother Jones in Washington, D.C.;
• Anna Russell, reporting assistant at The Wall Street Journal in New York;
• Ilona Viczian, deputy news editor at Al Jazeera English in Washington, D.C.;
• Dustin Volz, tech policy correspondent at National Journal in Washington, D.C.

The 2015 Canadian Burns Fellows are:

• Daniel Guillemette, associate producer at CBC Radio One in Toronto;
• Debbie Pacheco, associate producer at CBC Radio in Toronto.

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is at the forefront of the news revolution. Our programs empower journalists and engage citizens with new technologies and best practices. ICFJ's networks of reporters and media entrepreneurs are transforming the field. We believe that better journalism leads to better lives. For more information, visit www.icfj.org.

The Arthur F. Burns Fellowship program at the International Center for Journalists is an exchange of reporters between Germany and the United States that aims to increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of the two countries, and the relations between them, through independent mass media. A parallel goal of the program is to develop reporters who are interested, skilled and informed about U.S.-German and U.S.-European relations.