Medill professor joins Chicago Innocence Project board amid racial dispute with Evanston Police
Source: Ava Thompson Greenwell's Twitter profile
Medill Prof. Ava Thompson Greenwell has joined the Chicago Innocence Project's board of directors. The investigative reporting initiative was founded by former Medill Prof. David Protess.
December 10, 2012
Longtime Medill Prof. Ava Thompson Greenwell has joined the Chicago Innocence Project’s board of directors, the organization announced this afternoon.
Founded by former Medill Prof. David Protess, ChIP is a nonprofit investigative reporting initiative that looks into wrongful convictions. The group approached Greenwell last week to offer her a board position. She said this evening that the ChIP mission is “extremely important to democracy.”
“What’s more exciting than that?” Greenwell said. “To see a wrong be righted?”
Greenwell is the second Medill professor to join ChIP this year. In July, Pamela Cytrynbaum became the project's executive director, a full-time position.
Cytrynbaum said Greenwell’s extensive career as a journalist and educator, as well as her work at Northwestern, made her a natural choice for ChIP’s board. Cytrynbaum added that Greenwell, who will remain a full-time professor, will further strengthen the project’s connection with Medill.
“She values justice and truth and education in ways that really match our values,” Cytrynbaum said.
Greenwell’s decision to join the ChIP board comes amid her public clash with the Evanston Police Department.
In August, an officer handcuffed and briefly detained Greenwell’s 13-year-old son Diwani while looking for a burglary suspect described as a “black male wearing blue cargo shorts.” In the incident’s aftermath, Greenwell accused EPD of racial profiling and is currently pursuing a lawsuit the officer who originally detained her son.
“That perspective of having gone through that situation personally gives me a unique viewpoint in terms of being on the board,” Greenwell said.
An alumna of both Medill’s graduate and undergraduate programs, Greenwell has taught broadcast journalism courses since 1993.
— Lauren Caruba
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"....the perspective of having gone through that situation personally...." What nonsense: her son was briefly detained and interviewed on the street, not "wrongfully convicted."
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Belgian Beer Reply:
December 11th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
"John" above confuses the problem of wrongful conviction with that of racial profiling. It is clear from the article that Professor Thompson took issue with the latter, not the former, with regards to her son.
If "John" sees nothing wrong with racial profiling, he himself should be subjected to it -- daily and repeatedly until he acknowledges that targeting the members of a given racial or ethnic group is both unethical and lawful.
The problem with racial profiling is not, as "John" seems to suggest, the mere loss of one's time. Racial profiling is an assault on human dignity, a concept that "John" should try to understand a little better.
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My son had been lockup for two years on hear say for class 1 felony
He didn't have a trial he was sentient Monday 4/8/2013 please help. He are innocence
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