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Washington, D.C.—Prize-winning investigative journalist Sara Fritz will become publisher of Youth Today in April, succeeding co-founder and Publisher Bill Treanor, the news service announced today.
Like her predecessor, Fritz will also serve as executive director of the American Youth Work Center, a nonprofit corporation that operates both Youth Today and an international training program for youth workers.
Youth Today publishes 10 times a year and runs an electronic news service for people who operate, study and fund youth programs in such areas as juvenile justice, child welfare, after-school, mentoring, and college and career preparation.
During her career in journalism, Fritz spent nearly two decades as an investigative reporter for The Los Angeles Times, winning Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. She also served as White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, managing editor for Congressional Quarterly and Washington bureau chief for The St. Petersburg Times.
Since leaving daily journalism in 2002, Fritz has worked in the field of nonprofits: first as executive director of The Faith & Politics Institute in Washington, then as founder of the Prince Edward Partnership for Success, a racial reconciliation program in southern Virginia. She currently serves as fundraiser for the partnership, which provides mentoring for youth.
Ira Schwartz, chairman of the American Youth Work Center and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said the unique combination of skills that Fritz has acquired as an investigative reporter, a manager within news organizations and a nonprofit administrator and fund-raiser will enable her to lead Youth Today at a time of significant change in both the publishing and nonprofit worlds.
“We are expecting Sara to bring fresh vitality to an already respected and energetic news service that provides comprehensive, independent reporting on programming for the nation’s at-risk youth,” Schwartz said.
Fritz’s other journalism awards include the Everett Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress and the Times-Mirror Journalist of the Year in 1997. She is the current president of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, and a former officer of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
She has co-authored two books about campaign financing, Handbook of Campaign Spending and Gold Plated Politics, and is completing a book about the history of race relations in Prince Edward County, Va.—where all public schools were closed in 1959 for five years when they were ordered to integrate.
About the American Youth Work Center
The American Youth Work Center was founded in 1984 by Bill Treanor to help youth-serving organizations increase their capacity to meet the needs of children and youth throughout the U.S. and abroad. The center’s Practical Training Program offers career-oriented training and other international exchange opportunities for early-career youth workers from several countries to temporarily work at youth programs in the United States. www.awyc.org.
Youth Today was founded in 1992 with funding from the Ford, C.S. Mott, Annie E. Casey and the AT&T Foundations, by Treanor and veteran Washington journalist Bill Howard, its first editor. www.youthtoday.org.
About Bill Treanor
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Bill Treanor, a 10th grade dropout who received a GED in the U.S. Army, also received a master’s degree from Harvard University. He spent much of the period from 1965 to 1968 as a field worker with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference lead by Martin Luther King Jr. Treanor has spent more than 40 years as a singular leader in the youth service field, founding one of the nation’s first programs for runaway and homeless youth in 1968. Treanor served as executive director of the National Youth Work Alliance, a member of the Washington, D.C., board of education, and a consultant to programs in the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Malaysia. He founded the National Network for Youth (1974) and what is now known as the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (1979). He was a staffer on the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice chaired by Sen. Arlen Spector (Pa.). Under Treanor’s leadership, Youth Today has published 153 editions of the periodical. Treanor received the Syd Howe Lifetime Achievement Award on Feb. 9 from the Corps Network, which represents 143 service and conservation corps nationwide.
Youth Today Funders 1991-2010
Amelior Foundation | Annie E. Casey Foundation | AT&T Foundation | Atlantic Philanthropies | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Blue Ridge Foundation | Carnegie Corp. of New York | Charles Hayden Foundation | Cornerstone for Kids | Edna McConnell Clark Foundation | Edward W. Hazen Foundation | Ford Foundation | George Gund Foundation | Haigh-Scatena Foundation | John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation | John S. and James L. Knight Foundation | Marguerite Casey Foundation | MCJ Foundation | Open Society Institute | Pinkerton Foundation | Plymouth Rock Foundation | R.W. Johnson Foundation | Stuart Foundation | Surdna Foundation | The California Wellness Foundation | The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation | The Daniels Fund | The David and Lucile Packard Foundation | The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation | The Kellogg Foundation | The McKnight Foundation | van Loben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation | Weingart Foundation | William T. Grant Foundation | William Penn Foundation
Contact
For more information, please contact Sara Fritz, sarafritz@comcast.net and Bill Treanor, bill.w.treanor@gmail.com.
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