FEB. 12, 2024 — FRONTLINE, PBS’s flagship investigative documentary series produced at GBH in Boston, and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, are pleased to announce that Max Maldonado has been selected as one of the series’ 2024 Tow Journalism Fellows. The year-long position is funded by The Tow Foundation.

Maldonado received his master’s in 2022 from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where he reported on healthcare disparities including air pollution in the Bronx and the fading wetlands of Staten Island. He focused on documentary filmmaking with a concentration in health and science reporting.

Over the course of his fellowship, Maldonado will have the opportunity to work alongside FRONTLINE’s filmmaking teams to aid in the development of the series’ acclaimed documentaries. This work will include contributing to the research and development of stories, reporting out leads, wrangling and analyzing data, helping set up interviews and shoots, as well as various tasks as documentaries undergo editing, vetting and post-production. He’ll also have opportunities to contribute to FRONTLINE projects on other platforms — including the series’ Local Journalism Initiative, which supports local news outlets producing investigative journalism projects, as well as pursuing and crafting shorter-turnaround digital stories for FRONTLINE’s website.

“Over the years, our Tow Journalism Fellows have established themselves as an essential part of FRONTLINE’s reporting team, working side-by-side with producers on some of our most in-depth and complex investigations,” said Raney Aronson-Rath, FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer. “I’m so pleased to welcome Max to our team and look forward to seeing the great work that he will do. We’re thrilled to continue our journalism fellowship with the Newmark J-School and grateful to The Tow Foundation for their generous support of FRONTLINE’s journalism and public media mission.”

“Max Maldonado’s dedication to explore crises at the heart of health and the environment is a testament to the kind of public service journalism our graduates pursue,” said Graciela Mochkofsky, dean of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. “One good example is his coverage of sugarcane burning in Florida and its impact on low income communities. We are delighted he will continue to do important work with the great team at FRONTLINE, and proud of our partnership with them and the Tow Foundation.”

Previously, Maldonado worked for the Center for Investigative Reporting’s podcast Reveal. While there, he worked as a production assistant on The COVID Tracking Project miniseries, which followed the COVID-19 pandemic’s early grip on the U.S. and how a series of government missteps allowed its deadly spread to go unchecked.

Maldonado is currently working on two short documentaries about the sugar industry in South Florida, and another short film on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. His work has received recognition from organizations such as the Redford Center, IF/THEN Shorts, the Knight Foundation, the Working Film Fund, the Southern Documentary Fund, and the Economic Hardship and Reporting Project.

About FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 106 Emmy Awards and 31 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

About The Tow Foundation

The Tow Foundation was established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow as a way to give back to the communities that shaped them. Its five primary impact areas are equity and justice, medicine and public health, arts and culture, higher education, and civic engagement. Grounded in its decades of work in Connecticut and New York and based in New Canaan, CT, the foundation supports visionary leaders and nonprofit organizations to find and enact innovative solutions to persistent inequality. It works to ensure people can become full participants in their communities, achieve transformative and lasting progress, and develop approaches that allow everyone to reach their full potential.

About the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY

The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, founded in 2006, is a public graduate journalism school based in the heart of New York City. With affordable tuition and extensive scholarship support, it prepares students from diverse economic, racial and cultural backgrounds to produce high-quality journalism. The school offers 16-month master’s degree programs: M.A. in Journalism, M.A. in Engagement Journalism, and M.A. in Journalism – Bilingual Program (English/Spanish). Through the school’s J+ division, which offers online and hybrid executive training programs, seasoned journalists gain the skills to step into leadership roles and launch modern business models and news products. The Newmark J-School is also home to three unique centers and initiatives: the McGraw Center for Business Journalism; the Center for Community Media; and the Journalism Protection Initiative.

Press Contact:

FRONTLINE: frontlinemedia@wgbh.org