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Where we are now - On Jan. 25, 2002, two days after my friend and Wall Street Journal colleague Danny Pearl left my home in Karachi, Pakistan, for an interview from which he didn't return, I stood in front of a dining room wall I'd covered in blank paper, a thick black Sharpie pen in my hand. I wrote one name in the middle, "DANNY," and drew a box around it.

What are people saying?

"The Pearl Project honors the truth through patient, meticulous, and accurate reporting."

Robert J. Ross
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation

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The Pearl Project Fellows

2007-08 Fellows:

Tony Capaccio

Tony Capaccio is the Pentagon reporter for Bloomberg News. He joined the organization in December 1997. Capaccio started covering the military in March 1986 as a reporter and then co-editor for Defense Week in Washington. Capaccio worked between 1977 and March 1986 for Defense Week in Washington. He is a member of the Investigative Reporters & Editors Association where he has conducted panels on covering the military.

Capaccio also appears regularly on C-Span's Washington Journal. He was included in an April 1997 issue of National Journal as one of the most influential reporters in Washington. Capaccio has a B.A. in History from DePaul University and M.A. in Journalism from Marquette University.

Chris Chambers

Washington, D.C. native Christopher Chambers is a graduate of the Princeton University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He served with the United States Deparment of Justice for four years before leaving to teach writing and journalism at Howard University and then Queens University in Charlotte, N.C. He is also the bestselling author of the crime novels published by Random House and Peguin-Putnam, as well as a graphic novel series author with Walter Mosley and an upcoming historical novel to be published by St. Martin's Press. His articles on travel, culture, books and politics have appeared in the Rocky Mountain News, Charlotte Observer, Atlanta's Creative Loafing, National Geographic Traveler and in major blog feeds. He was made an "Honorary Hoya" once chosen as keynote speaker at the University's annual Father Healy Dinner.

Jeffrey Dvorkin

In July 2006, Jeffrey Dvorkin was named the first executive director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. For six and a half years prior to that, he was NPR's first Ombudsman and served as the President of the international Organization of News Ombudsmen. From 1997-2000, Dvorkin was the VP of News and Information at NPR. He came to Washington from Toronto where he was Managing Editor and Chief Journalist for the Radio Service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He is a graduate of the universities of Alberta (B.A. Hon), Toronto (M.A.) and the London School of Economics where he received his Masters of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in International History and Economics.

Ron Shafer

Ron Shafer is a retired editor from the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, where he edited Danny Pearl's stories during his tenure there.

Alicia Shepard

Alicia C. Shepard is the author of the book, Woodward & Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate (Nov. 2006). She spent the last four years teaching journalism, freelancing and working on her book. She interviewed more than 175 people connected to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and spent last year sifting through the new archival materials that the University of Texas bought from Woodward and Bernstein for $5 million in 2003. About the book: http://woodwardandbernstein.net/

She most recently covered the student massacre in April at Virginia Tech for the New York Times. Shepard also contributes to Washingtonian and People magazines, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and The Washington Post.

For nearly a decade, she wrote for American Journalism Review on such things as ethics, the newspaper industry and how journalism works—or doesn't. For that work, the National Press Club awarded her its top media criticism prize three different years. In 2003 she was a Foster Distinguished Writer at Penn State.

From 1982 to 1987, she was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. She is co-author of Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 (2002), about how journalists covered 9/11 and the role they played as modern-day keepers of calm on America's most terrifying day.

She graduated with honors in English in 1978 from The George Washington University and received a masters in journalism in 2002 from the University of Maryland. She lives in Arlington, VA with her family.