Santa Fe Native Melissa Segura To Keynote Dixon Awards

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She’s a Santa Fe native and investigative reporter focusing on the intersections of race, class and justice. She’s covered Major League Baseball for Sports Illustrated and is a senior writer at BuzzFeed News. Now,  Melissa Segura will be the keynote speaker for the 2022 William S. Dixon First Amendment Awards luncheon on Thursday, October 6, 2022, at the Albuquerque Marriott in Albuquerque.

Segura won the George Polk Award for her landmark investigation detailing how a group of predominantly working-class, Latinas from Chicago uncovered evidence suggesting a police detective framed more than 50 of their sons, brothers, or husbands for murders they did not commit.  Her series, “Broken Justice in Chicago,” has led to the exoneration of more than 30 people who had each spent decades behind bars.

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Melissa Segura

She has also been named Journalist of the Year by the Innocence Network and was a finalist for Harvard’s Goldsmith Award for investigative reporting. She’s been awarded the Emerson fellowship at New America and a Visiting Journalist position at the Russell Sage Foundation.

In Fall 2023, Viking will publish her book that builds off her Chicago investigation and delves deeper into the ways in which the criminal justice system has been mostly run by men but fixed by women — particularly marginalized mothers of color.

“We are excited that Melissa Segura will be the keynote speaker at the 2022 Dixon Awards Luncheon and so very honored to introduce the latest group of Dixon Award recipients to our friends and supporters,” Melanie J. Majors, NMFOG interim executive director, said.

Ms. Segura received her B.A. in Spanish studies and communication from Santa Clara University and is a 15th-generation Nueva Mexicana from Santa Fe.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2022 William S. Dixon, First Amendment Freedom Award in-person event on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022 beginning at 11:30 a.m.  Tickets are $60 per person with information on the FOG website, www.nmfog.org.  All proceeds benefit the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, a 501(c)(3) New Mexican nonprofit corporation. For more information, call 505-764-3750. 

The annual Dixon event honors those New Mexicans who believe in government transparency at the state or local level – and who have made significant contributions to casting sunshine (transparency) on government operations in the state.  The 2022 recipients include: Byron Marshall, citizen; Kathleen Hager, education; Rep. Marian Matthews and Greg Trapp, government; Thomas Grover, law; and Vincent Rodriguez, media.


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