Jonathan Karl, the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week, and Mindy Finn, the CEO of Citizen Data, an organization that delivers objective and unbiased research to organizations working to solve America’s toughest problems, are the 2023-2024 Terker Distinguished Fellows.
The program is run by George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and is designed to bring exceptional pioneers in media, political communication and public affairs to the university.
Past fellows include White House Correspondents’ Association president Olivier Knox, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania), White House correspondent April Ryan, political broadcast journalist Ed Henry, the late former Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley and the first official videographer of the White House, Arun Chaudhary.
As Terker Fellows, Karl and Finn will participate in class discussions, student lunches and public events at the university throughout the academic year.
The Terker Fellows program was established in 2010 through a gift by Bruce and Cindy Terker, the parents of 2013 SMPA graduate Jennifer Terker.
Karl has broad experience covering U.S. politics, foreign policy and the military. He has reported from more than 30 countries.
Karl also has reported from the White House under four presidents and 14 press secretaries. He has won several of the most prestigious awards in journalism, including the Walter Cronkite Award for National Individual Achievement and the National Press Foundation's Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, the highest honor for Congressional reporting.
Finn has led large-scale campaigns and initiatives to reduce polarization and improve elections throughout a 20-year career within Congress, presidential campaigns and major tech companies.
She’s now leveraging her experience to build Citizen, which is engineering data and marketing analytics solutions to bridge divides and counter disinformation. In 2016, Finn ran on a presidential ticket with independent Evan McMullin, earning more write-ins than any single presidential campaign in history.
Before Citizen, Finn served as co-founder and executive director of Stand Up Republic. She also worked on political campaigns including in senior roles for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.
Peter Loge, the director of SMPA, said Finn and Karl will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with GW students.
"I am very excited that political veteran Mindy Finn and award-winning journalist Jonathan Karl will be joining SMPA as Terker Fellows,” Loge said. “Finn's career as a Republican online pioneer, her independent run for vice president, and more recently her work using data to support democratic institutions, combined with Karl's decades of award-winning coverage of American politics, will bring critical insights to our students and the SMPA community."
