About On Assignment and the duPont-Columbia Awards
The On Assignment podcast brings you some of the best conversations from the Columbia Journalism School, produced and hosted by the school's Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards.
The duPont-Columbia Awards honor the best in audio-visual reporting across platforms including broadcast, documentary, local investigative, radio and interactive journalism. We started the On Assignment Podcast to go behind the scenes and bring you the conversations we were having with the leading journalists in the field, many of whom are also past duPont Award winners.
Reach us on Twitter, or email us at team@onassignmentpodcast.org. Remember to subscribe on iTunes!
The Team
Abi Wright, Host
Abi Wright is the Executive Director of Columbia Journalism School’s professional prizes department. Follow her on Twitter.
Lisa R. Cohen, Host
Lisa R. Cohen is the Director of Prizes administering the duPont-Columbia Awards, and an adjunct professor teaching broadcast and video journalism. Follow her on Twitter.
Through a competitive annual process, Columbia Journalism School graduate students are selected to work for the duPont-Columbia Center. From September through May, the research fellows are an integral part of the duPont Awards, liaising with their classmates and visiting journalists, assisting with duPont-Columbia Center public events and carrying out special projects.
Zach Jaworski, 2025-26 duPont-Columbia Award Fellow
Zach Jaworski, from Western New York, is a full-time student in the M.S. Stabile program at Columbia Journalism School. Prior to Columbia, he edited the student newspaper at St. Lawrence University and worked for the local NPR-affiliate station. He hopes to blend audio, print, and digital media in a career as a local investigative journalist, covering the people, places, and topics that are often underreported.
Vahini Shori, 2024-25 duPont-Columbia Award Fellow
Vahini Shori, from the great state of New Jersey, is a current student in the M.S. full time program. She looks forward to a career telling stories that center people and the things that make our world wonderful.