Photo by Ismael Quintanilla
Maggie is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, host and producer who reports on wrongful convictions, the criminal legal system, and social issues and co-founder RFE Media. The 2026 Blue Ribbon Panel Judge for The Ambies awards, presented by The Podcast Academy, is the host and producer of Suave, which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting, as well as the 2022 International Documentary Award. That same year she was nominated for the Livingston Award for National Reporting for her work on Suave.
Maggie hosted and produced 5 seasons of the Signal and Anthem award winning podcast Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng and is the 2024 winner of the iHeart Media Social Impact award for her work on Wrongful Conviction.
Formerly the Producer-at-Large for NPR’s Latino USA, Maggie was an NPR Next Generation Radio fellow and 2019 Ford Foundation "50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism" fellow. In 2023 she was honored during "World Woman Hour" by the World Woman Foundation for "breaking the role" as a female change-maker.
She is formerly an Adjunct Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York, though the life-long New-Yorker has found refuge in Austin living part-time with her cats and cacti.
Maggie believes in strong mentorship and is part of the NPR Next Generation Radio mentorship program. She was a fellow herself in 2016 before joining the mentor cohort in 2018, proudly mentoring for 6 projects.
She graduated with an M.A in Journalism focusing on Health & Sciences in Radio Broadcast from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in December 2015. She earned a B.A in Journalism & English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2011.
While in Massachusetts Maggie focused on conservation reporting and interned at the US Fish and Wildlife Service before returning to New York in 2012 to work at the online news publication Women’s eNews. There, she most notably wrote about the Occupy Wall Street movement and low-wage female workers in retail and fast food when the "Fight for $15" was kicking off in Times Square.
Going all the way back to when she was the New York blog correspondent for Stop Street Harassment and a production assistant at WAM! (Women, Action, and the Media), Maggie's been a longtime voice and advocate for social issues.
Maggie hosted and produced 5 seasons of the Signal and Anthem award winning podcast Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng and is the 2024 winner of the iHeart Media Social Impact award for her work on Wrongful Conviction.
Formerly the Producer-at-Large for NPR’s Latino USA, Maggie was an NPR Next Generation Radio fellow and 2019 Ford Foundation "50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism" fellow. In 2023 she was honored during "World Woman Hour" by the World Woman Foundation for "breaking the role" as a female change-maker.
She is formerly an Adjunct Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York, though the life-long New-Yorker has found refuge in Austin living part-time with her cats and cacti.
Maggie believes in strong mentorship and is part of the NPR Next Generation Radio mentorship program. She was a fellow herself in 2016 before joining the mentor cohort in 2018, proudly mentoring for 6 projects.
She graduated with an M.A in Journalism focusing on Health & Sciences in Radio Broadcast from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in December 2015. She earned a B.A in Journalism & English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2011.
While in Massachusetts Maggie focused on conservation reporting and interned at the US Fish and Wildlife Service before returning to New York in 2012 to work at the online news publication Women’s eNews. There, she most notably wrote about the Occupy Wall Street movement and low-wage female workers in retail and fast food when the "Fight for $15" was kicking off in Times Square.
Going all the way back to when she was the New York blog correspondent for Stop Street Harassment and a production assistant at WAM! (Women, Action, and the Media), Maggie's been a longtime voice and advocate for social issues.