New America Announces Fellows’ Class of 2025

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, New America announces its Class of 2025 New America Fellows. From an applicant pool spanning 34 U.S. states and 24 countries, 15 individuals were selected for the class of 2025—bringing the total number of Fellows past and present close to 300, an organizational milestone. The full roster can be found here.

For almost 25 years, New America’s Fellows Program has supported the dynamic storytelling and creative efforts of journalists, educators, filmmakers, researchers, and now, for the first time, a storyteller working in the video game industry and extended reality (XR)—all working to shape the conversation on the critical issues of today. The Fellows Program has supported nearly 300 Fellows who have gone on to publish more than 150 books, 16 feature-length films, 2 podcast series, and several award-winning long-form reporting projects.

“The 2025 New America Fellows are blazing new trails with their groundbreaking storytelling, paving the way for a more just and equitable future,” says Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America. “I’m thrilled to welcome this exceptional cohort to New America, where we’ve proudly supported nearly 300 Fellows to date. This milestone underscores our organizational commitment to fostering a vibrant community of changemakers and elevating the voices of the new America.”

With book, film, media projects, and, for the first time, a historical video game, this year’s cohort will pursue ambitious visions on a wide range of subjects, including:

• A book about the Dungeons & Dragons players of death row, from a woman once incarcerated, now an award-winning journalist and author—an expansion of her Pulitzer Prize finalist piece on the subject for The Marshall Project.
• A film about the descendants of an Indian residential school survivor, which will center the story of a 17-year-old Native American runner navigating his dream of becoming an elite athlete.
• An immersive, documentary video game built around the immigration story of Jewish refugees aboard the final voyage of the SS Normandie in 1939.
• A film on the intensifying fight for reparations in Barbados, once home to the world’s first slavery-based economy, and the impact of this little-known history on the wider America.

“This is an exciting year for our Fellows program,” said Fellows Program Director Awista Ayub. “Our commitment to support for groundbreaking nonfiction book projects continues, and we’ve expanded our support to creative storytellers across formats—from filmmakers and podcasters to, for the first time, a game developer. We are proud to champion diverse voices and innovative projects that push the boundaries of storytelling."

Several past Fellows have become New York Times bestsellers or have gone on to win or be finalists for the Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A complete digital archive of all past Fellows’ work can be found here.

Notable past Fellows include: Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark The 1619 Project, Clint Smith, the author of the number one New York Times Best Seller, How the Word Is Passed, which won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, Andrea Elliott, journalist and a staff writer for The New York Times—and the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in both Journalism and Letters, and Jeff Goodell, climate journalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Heat Will Kill You First.

Of the program, Jeff Goodell said: “The New America Fellows Program changed my life. It gave me the time, the freedom, and the intellectual camaraderie I needed to write the book I wanted to write. For a writer, there's no greater gift.”

Past fellow Clint Smith added: "In addition to the generous financial resources, the New America fellowship provided me with a community of writers, artists, and thinkers who both supported my work and also pushed my thinking in important ways. I still maintain many of the relationships I developed over the course of my fellowship year, and to this day, those former fellows remain my thought partners, collaborators, and first-readers."

Read our report on the Class of 2025 Fellows Program applicants here.

New America’s Fellows Program thanks its board of directors, Emerson Collective, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, ASU’s Center on the Future of War, ASU’s Media Enterprise, the Shourie Family Trust, and New America’s Digital Impact and Governance Initiative for their support this year.

Class of 2025 New America Fellows

Cecilia Ballí, ASU Media Enterprise Fellow
Cecilia Ballí is a journalist and cultural anthropologist whose writing explores the U.S.-Mexico border region and Mexican American and Latino history, culture, and politics.

Paige Bethmann, New America Fellow
Paige Bethmann is a Haudenosaunee filmmaker whose experience centers Indigenous storytelling on culture, futurism, race, ethnicity, and identity.

Keri Blakinger, Emerson Collective Fellow
Keri Blakinger is a criminal justice reporter covering incarceration and the criminal justice system in the United States.

Sam Butin, New America Fellow
Sam Butin is a storyteller who incorporates video games and extended reality into his creative endeavors with themes of immigration, history, and immersive world-building.

Matthew Campbell, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Fellow
Matthew Campbell is a reporter and editor who has reported from more than 25 countries. His work covers crime, corruption, terrorism, public health, and the environment.

Aimee Meredith Cox, New America Fellow
Aimee Meredith Cox is a cultural anthropologist, writer, and movement artist whose work centers on Black feminist theory and reflects on the intersection of race, gender, regional identity, violence, and resilience.

Megan Garber, Emerson Collective Fellow
Megan Garber is a writer whose work covers the intersection of culture, politics, and entertainment.

Seth Harp, ASU Future Security Fellow
Seth Harp is an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent who writes about the intersection of armed conflict and organized crime.

Will Hunt, New America Fellow
Will Hunt is a nonfiction writer whose work focuses on cultural heritage, humanity, and connections that stem from place-based relationships.

Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Fellow
Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is a Barbados-based filmmaker whose work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, BlackStar, Toronto International Film Festival, and other film festivals across the country.

Sheelah Kolhatkar, New America Fellow
Sheelah Kolhatkar is an award-winning investigative reporter and feature writer who covers business, politics, and technology.

Molly O’Toole, ASU Future Security Fellow
Molly O’Toole is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose work centers on themes of migration, security, and foreign policy.

Alex W. Palmer, ASU Future Security Fellow
Alex W. Palmer writes on foreign policy and international security issues.

Nadim Roberts, New America Fellow
Nadim Roberts is a journalist and documentary filmmaker based in London.

Mayukh Sen, Shourie Family Fellow
Mayukh Sen is an independent culture journalist whose work centers on immigration and themes focused on food, travel, and community.