Previous Fanning Fellows

Interested in the Fanning Fellowship? Learn about previous Fanning Fellows and some of their projects.

Brett Davidson has an MA in journalism and media studies from Rhodes University in South Africa. He works as an independent media consultant, assisting NGOs to develop communications and advocacy strategies, and with practical and effective ways of working with the media. Major projects and clients include the Open Society Institute’s Health Media Program, the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Program, and the Citizen Journalism in Africa project. He has worked as a radio journalist, presenter, producer and trainer. He also has experience in senior management in the NGO sector. He’s an experienced trainer and materials developer, and also writes and edits. These days he’s also working on a project on Citizen Journalism in Africa www.citizenjournalismafrica.org


Davidson's Fanning Fellowship project resulted in a publication on radio and public deliberation.

Check out his blog, which supports nonprofits organizations interested interacting with the media.


Janet Lamisi Dabire is a Ghanaian journalist and media trainer. Lamisi has worked with a number of local radio stations in Accra, Ghana. She has also consulted with institutions such as the Institute of Democratic Governance Ghana, the West Africa Civil Society Institute, and the Ghana Research and Advocacy Program, among others. In spring 2007, Lamisi was a Katherine W. Fanning International Fellow for Journalism and Democracy, when she studied the new media as an additional platform for citizen engagement. She currently works with WaterAid Ghana, a British charity, as the communication and advocacy program officer.


Explore Lamisi’s Web-based fellowship project.


Marietjie Myburg of South Africa has worked as a journalist for 12 years—most of them at a time in South Africa’s history where the majority of citizens were inspired to take up the struggle and end Apartheid. Since then she has worked in settings where the focus was on creating space for discussion and communication between citizens and policy makers and planners on issues around the development of the country and the region. The catalytic potential of the media in this discussion remains one of her keen interests.


Download Myburg's Fanning Fellowship project here.


Chaacha Mwita of Kenya holds a master’s degree in communications and business administration from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and a post-graduate diploma in mass communication from the School of Journalism at the University of Nairobi. He has been a journalist for 11 years, and currently serves as the group managing editor of the Standard Group Limited, Kenya’s oldest newspaper and East and Central Africa’s second largest.



He participated in DDW 2006 and 2007, and during his fellowship intends to take a closer look at the research opportunities and issues forums on the role of journalism in a developing democracy such as the one he comes from within a global context.