Two award-winning, nationally renowned journalists – one of whom is also an experienced educator – will join Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication this summer to launch its new Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting.
Joining the Logan Center will be Yvonne Latty, a multimedia journalist and professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University; and Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald investigative reporter known for exposing injustice in the sex-trafficking case of Jeffrey Epstein.
Latty will be the director of the Logan Center and Brown will serve as a professional-in-residence for one year to help launch the center’s activities.
“We are enormously fortunate to have persuaded these two stellar journalists to help us get this exciting initiative off the ground,” said David Boardman, dean of Klein College. “And what a privilege for our students to learn from such outstanding, accomplished professionals.”
The Logan Center was created with a $1.2 million founding grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation of Berkeley, California. The Center will focus exclusively on the issues facing Philadelphia and other large American cities, including gun violence, economic inequality, education and health disparities, and eroding trust in institutions. Through the Logan Center, Klein students and faculty will report not only on these problems, but on potential solutions, closely examining what has worked well in other cities across the nation and the globe.
Latty is a longtime Philadelphia resident who worked as a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News before joining NYU’s faculty in 2006. In addition to teaching and directing graduate programs at NYU, she has continued to work as a multimedia journalist, producing documentary films and podcasts. She has won many national awards for her journalism, including a Clarion Award for her Alzheimer’s in Color podcast and a Santa Fe Independent Film Festival Award.
Latty produced and co-hosted a Southern Poverty Law Center podcast that tells the stories of people and communities grappling with hate and searching for solutions.
Julie K. Brown is a Philadelphia-area native and Temple University graduate who also worked as a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News before joining the staff of The Miami Herald. As an investigative reporter, she has long focused on crime, justice and human-rights issues.
In 2018, she produced an investigative series titled Perversion of Justice, which examined how a wealthy and well-connected financier Jeffrey Epstein had secured a secret plea deal that allowed him to serve only minimal time in jail, even though evidence pointed to him sexually abusing and trafficking more than 100 girls and young women. After Brown’s stories were released, Epstein was re-arrested and charged, and was eventually found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
Brown won myriad national awards for her work, including two prestigious George Polk Awards, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the Hillman Prize and the National Press Club’s award for investigative reporting.
Michael Days, former editor of The Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer and a member of the Klein College Board of Visitors, said he is “thrilled that Yvonne and Julie, my former colleagues at the Philadelphia Daily News, are joining Klein College. They are exceptional journalists, and their ability to teach and share their skills with students will be a tremendous asset.”
Latty and Brown expressed excitement about coming to Klein College – and about reuniting, as they have previously worked side-by-side as reporters at The Daily News.
"I am so excited to join this faculty, lead the center and be part of the solutions to help a city I truly love and am committed to, “ Latty said. “There is so much important work to be done and I can’t wait to get started.
Brown said, “When you think about all the problems that confront our cities — gun violence, economic disparities, racial tensions — our work as investigative reporters has never been more important. To be able to return to my hometown to continue the work that I do while helping to mentor young journalists is such an honor."
Klein has long had a "teaching hospital" model for preparing students for careers in journalism and other communication professions, giving them a strong foundation in theory along with many opportunities to hone their skills on campus and in the community. Through the college's Philadelphia Neighborhoods capstone class, students report from areas of Philadelphia that are largely overlooked by mainstream media.
The college has also worked closely with community groups to form news and information websites in Kensington and Germantown. Temple University Television, housed within Klein College, provides student-produced news and other public-service programming available on cable systems throughout the city, and was recently named the top college-television station in the nation by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System.