May 14, 2026
CU-CitizenAccess, a community online news and information project overseen by Professor Brant Houston, the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting in the Department of Journalism, was part of a team that won two Lisagor Awards for exemplary journalism from the Chicago Headline Club on May 8.
The team received both “Best Reporting on Race and Diversity” and “Best Reporting on Crime and Justice” in the student category for their submission titled “At Illinois public universities, campus cops pull over Black drivers at higher rates.”
The student team included Maia McDonald, Nicole Jeanine Johnson, Khadija Ahmed, Isabelle Senechal, Amilia Estrada; Investigative Project on Race and Equity, Chicago Public Media, WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times, CU-CitizenAccess, Saluki Local Reporting Lab, and The Daily Egyptian.
University of Illinois students who contributed to the project through CU-CitizenAccess included Molly Hughes (MS ’25, journalism), Jordan Butler (BS ’25, journalism), and Courtney Dillon (BS ’25, journalism; BA ’25, LAS).
“Managing editor Dylan Tiger (BS ’19, journalism; MS ’20, iSchool) did an excellent job wrangling difficult data and interviews with local officials and helping to coordinate our part,” said Houston. “It was a great experience for students to be involved in the collaboration.”
CU-CitizenAccess is devoted to investigative and enterprise coverage of social, justice, and economic issues in east central Illinois.
The Lisagor Award entries were judged by an impartial Society of Professional Journalists chapter outside Illinois.
Read more about the 49th annual Lisagor Awards.
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