The Sakka Family Fellowship
Veteran NPR Journalist Joins Georgetown to Explore the Impact of Religion on Political Discourse
Georgetown University’s Journalism Program in the College of Arts & Sciences and Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs are thrilled to announce that veteran journalist Tom Gjelten will join the university for the spring 2025 semester as the distinguished inaugural Sakka Family Religion and International Journalism Fellow.
Gjelten was most recently religion and belief correspondent at National Public Radio, reporting on such issues as the changing religious landscape in America, the formation of personal identity, the role of religion in politics, and social and cultural conflict arising from religious differences.
“We’re so thrilled to have a journalist of Tom Gjelten’s caliber as a resource for our aspiring reporters here on the Hilltop, inside the classroom and beyond,” said Professor of the Practice Rebecca Sinderbrand, director of the Journalism Program.
“Journalism is – at its best – a public service, and it’s a privilege to inaugurate this fellowship with an individual whose career exemplifies that aspiration, thanks to the Sakka family’s generous support.”
Engaging Across Georgetown
At Georgetown, Gjelten will lead a series of public conversations for the university community during the spring semester exploring the impact of religion on political discourse and international affairs. He will also anchor the long-form narrative reporting seminar for graduating seniors in the journalism minor completing their capstone projects, as well as hold office hours as a fellow in residence on the university’s Hilltop Campus. Gjelten is looking forward to engaging the Georgetown University community.
“Georgetown is a first-class, world-renowned university, and I am honored by this opportunity to join the Georgetown community and help prepare young scholars who are destined to be leaders in journalism and global affairs.”
A Global Reporting Career
Gjelten’s nearly four-decade NPR career included extensive overseas reporting on wars, social and political strife and transitions to democracy in Central and South America, the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He later covered U.S. diplomacy and military affairs from the U.S. State Department and then from the Pentagon, including live reporting from the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and during the early war in Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
He is the author of several critically-acclaimed books, including Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege (1996), Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause (2008), and A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story (2015). For his NPR reporting, he was honored with two Overseas Press Club Awards, a George Polk Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a National Headliner Award. Gjelten is currently a contributing writer at Moment Magazine, where in 2022 he earned the “Religion Story of the Year” award from the Religion News Association. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Tom Gjelten’s NPR career set the bar for in-depth and sophisticated reporting on the complex intersection of religion and geopolitics. We are delighted to inaugurate the Sakka Fellowship with such a stellar, distinguished fellow,” said Professor Michael Kessler, executive director of the Berkley Center.
“Georgetown is truly grateful for Kareem and Dania Sakka’s generosity and their keen foresight that our public discourse is served by sharper reporting about religion and politics globally.”
The Sakka Family Religion and International Journalism Fellowship is made possible through a generous gift from Kareem Sakka (MBA’91, P’20, P’24) and Dania Sakka (P’20, P’24). The fellowship was created to help students gain a greater understanding of the role of religion in public life and world events by connecting the Georgetown community with journalists who have significant experience reporting on that dynamic.
