Hannah Bae and Matthew Crowley Honored With Henry Fuhrmann Mentor Award
By ACES Staff
ACES: The Society for Editing and the Asian American Journalists Association, Los Angeles chapter are pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the Henry Fuhrmann Mentor Award.
The award honors working journalists who actively mentor other journalists. This, the award’s third year, saw the most nominations ever, and for the first time, two winners were named: Hannah Bae and Matthew Crowley.
Each receives a $1,000 cash prize and a certificate.
Hannah Bae
Hannah Bae is a journalist, nonfiction writer, and illustrator. She started her journalism career in Seoul on a Princeton-in-Asia fellowship that led to editor positions at some of South Korea’s largest news organizations. For the next decade, she worked in newsrooms at CNN Business, Newsday, and the U.S. State Department.
Bae said that in mid-career, she is devoting more time to mentoring fellow journalists, operating under the idea that “there is only one you. And no job is worth sacrificing your emotional or physical well-being.”
“She challenged me to center my health and mind, to accept that work-life balance is necessary to be able to sustain a career in media,” wrote mentee Kami Rieck, New York Times Opinion staff editor for audience and fact-checking based in Seoul, Korea.
“Hannah always empowered me to tap into various life experiences and use them as tools of empathy in my career. Most importantly, I have a renewed appreciation for community because of Hannah.”
“Walking with Hannah through a journalism event is like walking with the mayor,” wrote mentee, Chris Karnadi, a culture writer and editor. “She has rapport with so many people, and rather than gatekeeping her network, she is always introducing people to one another. She’s beloved by her community and consistently shows up for other people, whether big or small in the industry. She inspires me to be a better writer, and a better human.”
Bae’s other honors include: nonfiction winner of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award (2020), a Peter Taylor Fellow for the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops (2021, 2022), a fellow at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (2019), and nominee for the Pushcart Prize for her essays (2019).
Now as a freelance journalist, she covers arts and culture, including books, for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews. Her freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, CNN, Monocle, and Eater. An active member of AAJA, she codirected the organization’s national mentoring program from 2017 to 2021.
Matthew Crowley
Matthew Crowley’s journalism career spans more than three decades and includes stints at newspapers in Nevada, Arizona, and New York. Most recently, he served as PolitiFact’s copy chief from 2022 to this year. He has supervised, edited, and written for all four major newsroom desks — city, business, features, and sports.
Nominators said they can trust Crowley to respond no matter what. Mentee Jenna Barackman of the Denver Business Journal wrote that although she and Crowley had never met in person, “that has not stopped him from doing everything in his power to help me grow professionally and personally.
“Perhaps the most helpful thing he did for me was read each and every one of my cover letters (and provide notes and edits), review my resumes, and help select which clips I would submit. With that help, I began landing second interviews, then offers — none of which had happened before.”
Crowley is “always wanting and willing to help others, especially young journalists, cheering on others’ accomplishments,” she wrote.
Mentee Madison Czopek, a staff writer at PolitiFact, called Crowley “a meticulous and dedicated editor who deeply loves helping writers’ work shine. Matthew motivates writers to improve by consistently providing thoughtful, detailed and positive feedback.”
Crowley has won national, regional, and state awards for reporting and headline writing.
He mentors journalists through the Syracuse University Alumni Partnership and Arizona State Journalism Mentoring programs. He is an active member of ACES and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).
“Entering journalism can be brutal and lonely,” Crowley said of his motivation to mentor. “Physical newsrooms that once brought people together are dwindling. Even when they thrived, finding guidance in them was hard. Workloads were heavy, deadlines were short, people were harried. I remember feeling lost when I got in. I promised myself I’d make things better.”
Honoring Henry Fuhrmann
This award is named for former Los Angeles Times editor Henry Fuhrmann, a longtime leader and mentor in both ACES and AAJA-Los Angeles, who gave generously of his time and expertise to help shape the careers of many journalists at all career stages.
Both organizations thank this year’s judges, Mark Allen and Jay Wang from ACES and Samantha Masunaga and Julie Patel Liss from AAJA-LA.
To support this award, tax-deductible donations can be made to the ACES Education Fund or AAJA-LA (please specify the donation is for the Fuhrmann Award).
Questions about the award can be sent to ACES Education Board Member Ellen Kuwana (info@ellenkuwana.com).
Learn more about the Fuhrmann Mentor Award
ACES: The Society for Editing
ACES: The Society for Editing is the nation’s leading organization of editing professionals, educators, and students. Founded in 1997 by copy editors, ACES is dedicated to improving the quality of the written word and the working lives of editors. It sets standards of excellence and gives a voice to editors in journalism, government, business, publishing, and beyond through top-notch training, networking, and career opportunities. ACES hosts an annual in-person conference and, since 2022, an annual virtual conference. ACES Academy hosts monthly webinars. ACES also offers certificates in editing, which it co-hosts with The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism.
The ACES Education Fund
The ACES Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and its predecessor have awarded nearly 150 scholarships since 1999 to students who have a passion for editing. The ACES Education Fund is run entirely by volunteers, and all awards come from individual donations.
