A pair of former CBS News correspondents will serve as residents at the Columbia School of Journalism this fall, working with students and contributing to the school’s monthly news magazine, the academic institution said on Monday.
Sharyn Alfonsi and Scott Pelley will work as distinguished Journalists in Residents during the 2026-2027 school year, part of the “CJS2030: Democracy Initiative,” a program tied to Dean Jelani Cobb’s long-term plan for the journalism school. The initiative is intended to strengthen accountability reporting and reinforce journalism’s role in sustaining democracy.
During the residency, Alfonsi and Pelley will work with students individually and in groups through lectures, workshops and special events. Columbia said the sessions will focus on reporting, investigations and sourcing. Both journalists will also contribute essays to Columbia Journalism Review.
“We’re both excited and honored to welcome two journalists of this caliber to our Journalist in Residence Program,” Cobb, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism, said. “Their distinguished track records in investigative reporting highlight the amazing opportunity our students will have to learn from them, and we look forward to having Sharyn and Scott with us this year.”
Alfonsi brings more than three decades of broadcast journalism experience to Columbia. She began her career in local news in 1994 before joining CBS News and ABC News, where she covered major domestic and international stories.
She joined “60 Minutes” as a correspondent in 2015. Her reporting has included immigration, war, public health, politics and criminal justice, with assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
During her time at “60 Minutes,” Alfonsi received multiple Emmy Awards and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border. Earlier this year, she received the Ridenhour Prize for Courage at the National Press Club.
“Joining Columbia University as a Journalist in Residence is an extraordinary privilege, especially at a time when deep, rigorous and fearless reporting has never been more vital,” Alfonsi said. “I’m excited to work with the next generation of journalists who are eager to ask the tough questions that hold power accountable.”
Pelley joins Columbia after more than 37 years at CBS News. He served as Anchor and Managing Editor of “CBS Evening News” and spent 27 years as a correspondent at “60 Minutes.”
His work included reporting from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. On September 11, 2001, Pelley was reporting from the World Trade Center when the North Tower collapsed. He has also interviewed presidents from George H.W. Bush to Joe Biden.
Pelley has received 51 Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards and four Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards. He is also the author of “Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times.”
“This is a critical time for a free press,” Pelley said. “Columbia is leading the way in training the next generation of great journalists and I am honored to join Sharyn in that vital cause.”
Both were dismissed from 60 Minutes earlier this year, for differing reasons. The firings came as new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss worked to move the legacy news magazine in a different direction.
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