Reporter Newspapers staff reporter Evelyn Andrews won the Atlanta Press Club’s 2018 “Rising Star” award, recognizing her as an “outstanding talent” in metro area journalism, at an April 16 ceremony.
Andrews, who joined the Reporter two years ago, earned the recognition for her tireless work on stories in Buckhead and Sandy Springs and on the education beat. She combined shoe-leather reporting and use of the Open Meeting and Open Records laws to ensure transparency on plans for a park capping Ga. 400 in Buckhead, to help secure sidewalk repairs affecting patients at the Shepherd Center hospital, and to follow Sandy Springs’ plans for massive redevelopment of its north end, among other stories.
The “Rising Star” award recognizes “outstanding talent from any medium, from a journalist under 30 years of age.”
Andrews was a finalist for the “Rising Star” award last year as well. This year, the other finalists for the award were Stephen Fowler, a political reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting, and Stephannie Stokes, a reporter on housing and other major issues for WABE News.
Photographer Phil Mosier, a regular contributor to the Reporter, was a finalist in the “Single Image Photography” category for his work in the Reporter’s sister newspaper Atlanta Senior Life. That award was won by Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer John Spink.
The award ceremony was held at the Commerce Club in downtown Atlanta. Thomas Wheatley, an editor at Atlanta Magazine, served as host. Award-winners and finalists ranged from such major media as the AJC and CNN to independent journalists, including Max Blau, who last year wrote a Reporter Newspapers series on opioid addiction in the suburbs.