The Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism is dedicated to training students for distinguished careers in investigative journalism.

Teaching investigative journalism is a core mission of the Graduate School of Journalism atColumbia University. Some of the best investigative journalists in the country teach at Columbia and many other professors use investigative techniques in courses not explicitly labeled with the “I” word.

In 2006, the Journalism School expanded and consolidated its investigative offerings by establishing the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. After a worldwide search, Sheila S. Coronel, one of Asia’s best-known journalists and founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, joined the faculty to run the Center.

The Center administers an exclusive track for students who want to specialize in investigative journalism. Fifteen students are selected from about 100 who apply. They spend the year specializing in investigative reporting and are required to do an investigative report for their master’s project (see Stabile curriculum). In addition, we have high-level investigative courses for those not enrolled in the investigative program. These students take shorter, but just-as-intense courses in investigative skills and techniques.

The Stabile Center also administers the Toni Stabile Investigative Project Fund, which supports the most important and promising stories by the Center’s graduates. The Fund allows students to complete their reporting projects for publication. Since 2007, Stabile student projects have been published or aired in The New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio and PBS.

The Center is funded mainly by the proceeds of a generous endowment from Toni Stabile. It has received small grants to fund additional reporting from the Hearst Corporation, the Open Society Foundation, the Deckinger Family Foundation and William K. Zinke.