FRONTLINE and Newmark J-School Announce 2026 Tow Journalism Fellow

FEB. 2, 2026 — BOSTON, MA — 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 Leo Miranda has been selected as one of the series’ 2026 Tow Journalism Fellows. The year-long position is funded by The Tow Foundation.

Miranda received his master’s degree in journalism in 2024 from the Newmark J-School, where he specialized in data journalism and local accountability reporting.

Miranda has reported on housing for Next City, including covering how Minneapolis’ housing authority used modular construction to build affordable homes. His accountability work also includes a collaborative investigation for The CITY into the condition of New York City’s bridge infrastructure.

Over the course of his fellowship, Miranda 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 will also have opportunities to contribute to FRONTLINE projects on other platforms — including pursuing and crafting shorter-turnaround digital stories for FRONTLINE’s website, as well as working with the series’ Local Journalism Initiative, which supports local news outlets producing investigative journalism projects.

“Our Tow Journalism Fellows from CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism have fortified FRONTLINE’s storytelling and served as an essential resource to our digital team and our investigative reporters and filmmakers,” said Raney Aronson-Rath, FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer. “I’m so pleased to welcome Leo to our team and look forward to seeing how he will meaningfully contribute to our journalism. We’re excited to continue our journalism fellowship with the Newmark J-School for the seventh year and are grateful to The Tow Foundation for their generous support of FRONTLINE’s reporting and our public media mission.” 

“Leo’s selection as a Tow Journalism Fellow speaks to the kind of journalist we strive to prepare at the Newmark J-School—rigorous, deeply curious, and committed to accountability reporting in the public interest,” said Graciela Mochkofsky, dean of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “This fellowship offers an extraordinary opportunity to learn alongside FRONTLINE’s investigative teams. We’re proud to see graduates, like Leo, contributing to journalism that digs deeply into issues that matter most to the public.”

After graduating from Newmark, Miranda covered transportation for the public radio station WHYY, including examining why the Philadelphia region was increasing their adoption of roundabouts. Most recently, he served as a fact-checker for The Nation, exploring issues ranging from private equity and housing court to reproductive healthcare.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 110 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on 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, with major support from Ford Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, 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 at CUNY is a public graduate journalism school that 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). The school’s J+ division offers a suite of executive training programs that train seasoned journalists to reimagine news business models, build news products, and step into leadership roles with an entrepreneurial mindset. In 2024, the school launched a campaign to provide free tuition, in perpetuity, to all of its students.

Press Contact: frontlinemedia@wgbh.org