Embassy Information
Embassy Events
US SPECIALIST TALKS ABOUT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
October 30-November 2, 2006
US Specialist Lise Olsen is visiting Argentina to give lectures and seminars on ‘investigative journalism´and investigative journalism techniques, from October 30 to November 2. Mrs. Olsen, who graduated with honors at the University of Nebraska, is an investigative journalist at the Houston Chronicle.
She has also worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the state of Washington and the Virginian-Pilot from Virginia. She was also the founding director of the Investigative Journalists and Editors in Mexico, which offers workshops to journalists and editors from throughout Latin America.
In acknowledgement of her work, Mrs. Olsen received the 2005 Journalist of the Year award in Texas for her investigations about the not-guilty plea of a Mexican-American who was executed and for her coverage of the much-criticized evacuations in New Orleans. Another of her works on five years of shooting on innocent and disarmed people by Houston’s police resulted in a policy change that helped to save lives. Mrs. Olsen is a member of the team of investigation of one of the 10 leading newspapers of the United States.
In Buenos Aires, Mrs. Olsen will teach workshops at the Argentine Catholic University and at the Palermo University. In Cordoba, Mrs. Olsen will speak before journalists and editors representing several provinces.
To get more information on this subject, check this information guide (which includes links to resources in English and Spanish)
Lise Olsen Biography
EXPERIENCE:
7/03 to current: Investigative Reporter, the Houston Chronicle. Named Texas Reporter of the year for investigations in 2005 into an innocence claim of an executed Mexican-American and into the botched evacuations of the city of New Orleans. A separate report on five years of shootings of innocent and unarmed people by Houston police resulted in policy changes believed to have saved lives. Member of the investigative team in one the nation’s top 10 largest newspapers.
6/98 – 7/03: Investigative Reporter, the Seattle (Washington) Post-Intelligencer. Series in 1999 on the indefinite detention of immigrants by federal authorities in the Northwest led to a U.S. Supreme Court case and the freeing of more than 100 immigrants. 2001 death penalty series showing how drunk and disbarred lawyers had handled recent capital cases led to changes in state rules on attorney appointments. A related profile contributed to the recent commutation of the sentence for a woman locked away for life without parole as a 15-year-old. Conducted complex computer-assisted analysis for a special report on mining waste that litters Western States, as well as an analysis of Puget Sound polluters, both of which won major environmental awards.
7/96-6/98: Founding director of Investigative Reporters & Editors-Mexico, a two-year project to provide investigative workshops, conferences and training materials to reporters and editors in Latin America. Organized national and border conferences in Mexico and lectured on computer-assisted reporting (CAR) and investigative reporting throughout Mexico and in six other countries (Colombia, Peru, Brasil, Argentina, Panama and Chile.) Oversaw the establishment of a training archive in Spanish, the production of a professional journal and website on investigative reporting and organized a network of more than 200 journalists. Worked cooperatively with the Instituto de Prensa y Sociedad; the Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa and the Freedom Forum, among other organizations.
1/94-7/96: CAR specialist, The Virginian-Pilot. (Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia) Provided CAR training, including tipsheets, workshops and in-house internships and produced CAR projects on nearly all beats, including stories on statewide patterns of discrimination in special education in Virginia.
1/93-1/94: Latin American travel. Took off a year to travel by land from Mexico to Argentina, taking time to study Spanish at the Universidad de Córdoba, and to do volunteer work.
11/88-1/93: Reporter, The Virginian-Pilot. I started as a reporter in the Pilot’s tiny Smithfield bureau, where I did my first investigative story on a sewer system, moved to Virginia Beach where my reporting on nepotism and financial problems in the school administration prompted the firing of the superintendent and then went on to cover Virginia’s largest city..
EDUCATION
Bachelor’s degree in journalism, summa cum laude, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1988.
National Merit Scholar & Regents’ Scholar.
Internships at St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, the Grand Island (Nebraska) Independent and La Voix du Nord (Paris bureau – France).
RECENT LECTURES:
Computer-assisted reporting workshop for the Instituto de Prensa y Libertad de Expresión, with support from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas in San Jose, Costa Rica, 2006.
Frequent lecturer at conferences and workshops for Investigative Reporters and Editors, including the IRE National Conference in Fort Worth in June, 2006; in Denver in 2005 and in Atlanta in 2004, among many others. Member of organizing committee for the 2006 IRE national conference.
Workshops for various journalism groups in Chile (Santiago and Iquique) on use of the internet and on computer-assisted reporting in September 2005 (with support from the U.S. Embassy in Santiago).
Lecturer for the International Center for Journalists, conducting workshops on freedom of expression, use of documents and investigative reporting in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras in 2003 and 2004.
Organizer of border reporting investigative workshop sponsored by IRE and by the Center for Ethical Journalism in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico 2003. Also conducted train the trainers workshop for CEPET (the Centro de Periodismo y Etica Pública.) in 2004 in Queretero, México.
AWARDS:
Named best reporter in Texas in 2006 by the Associated Press Managing Editors; also won state headliner award. Winner of various Hearst (all newspapers in chain) first place awards, Pacific Northwest Sigma Delta Chi awards and Blethen awards for investigative/enterprise reporting. Death penalty series also won top national reporting award from both the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the Thurgood Marshall Award. Mining series in which I collaborated as a CAR reporter won the The John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.
SPECIAL SKILLS:
Fluent in French and Spanish
Adept at many CAR techniques and programs, including mapping, statistical software, Excel, Access.