The Wake Forest University Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative (EEJI) is a multi-pronged Mellon Foundation funded research, teaching, and community engagement project that places at its center environmental and epistemic justice. The EEJI critically examines how and in what ways race and regimes of racial knowledge shape and inform our scholarly practices, public policies, and normative concerns. Dean Corey D. B. Walker is the principal investigator of the initiative and Melba Newsome is the EEJI director. 

The EEJI Journalism Fellowship provides an opportunity for 4-6 early to mid-career journalists to attend the EEJI Summer Institute with the goal of improving coverage of the many environmental justice issues, while helping to diversify the ranks of environmental journalism. This year’s institute will take place at INSTEP-WFU London, England from June 1-June 4, 2026. 2026 EEJI faculty and fellows include:

2026 EEJI Institute Faculty

Andrea King Collier, Journalist and Author

Yanick Rice Lamb, Professor, Howard University

Justin Worland, Senior Correspondent, TIME

2026 EEJI Institute Fellows

Jaha Avery, Journalist and Author

Nichole Currie, Audio Producer and Journalist, The Pulse

Kani'ya Davis, Journalism and Mass Communications Student

Aissa Dearing, Doctoral Candidate, University of Oxford

Nina B. Elkadi, Writer

Britney Hamilton, Meteorologist, Spectrum News

Ashley Miznazi, Multimedia Reporter, The Miami Herald