On January 31 at 7 p.m. in the Jobe Hall Auditorium on the campus of Delta State University, the Division of Languages & Literature’s “Fresh from the Press” Speaker Series will host Mississippi Today‘s Anna Wolfe, whose diligent and dogged investigative reporting revealed one of the largest public corruption scandals in Mississippi’s history. The event is free and open to the public.
National Public Radio’s All Things Considered reports that “More than 90 million in welfare funds were siphoned off for personal use, federal dollars intended to help low-income families instead being used for private investments.”
The most notable misuse of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds was the millions of dollars funneled to pet projects championed by NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
In addition to a dialogue about her groundbreaking work on the TANF scandal, reporter Anna Wolfe will have a conversation with Don Allan Mitchell, an Associate Professor of English, about her background, her career path, and her other award-winning investigative work.
According to Mississippi Today, “Anna Wolfe has received national recognition for her work, including the 2021 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the 2021 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, the 2021 John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award, the 2020 Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award and the February 2020 Sidney Award for reporting on Mississippi’s debtors prisons. She received the National Press Foundation’s 2020 Poverty and Inequality Award. She also received first place in the regional Green Eyeshade Awards in 2021 for Public Service in Online Journalism and 2020 for Business Reporting, and the local Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Journalism in 2019 and 2018 for reporting on unfair medical billing practices and hunger in the Mississippi Delta.”
For more information, please contact the Division of Languages & Literature at 662-846-4060.
