Recognized for Excellence in Investigative Journalism Lisa Cavazuti ’08 always knew a career in investigative journalism wouldn’t be easy to come by or to navigate. However, she recently reached some of the highest levels of recognition in the field when an investigation she pitched, and helped research and produce for NBC News received Emmy and Murrow awards as well as other prestigious honors. The story, “‘Zone Rouge’: An army of children toils in African mines,” was the first news report to focus on the extent of child labor involved in Madagascar’s mica industry. It first aired Nov. 18, 2019, on the “Today Show” and “Nightly News with Lester Holt” with an accompanying digital article by Lisa, Christine Romo, Cynthia McFadden and Rich Schapiro. Journalistic recognition of the story has continued since then. Lisa joined NBC in New York in 2017 and is an associate producer for the network’s national investigative unit following prior work as an associate producer at CBS News and as a production assistant for Shepard Smith at Fox News. A graduate of Georgetown University, where she earned a B.A. in American studies, she also completed internships during that time at “60 Minutes” and “The Charlie Rose Show.” Work on the mica investigation started nearly a year before the story aired with research on international supply chains, which are opaque, often corrupt and notoriously hard
to penetrate. Through their research, Lisa’s team came to find that child labor was common in the extraction and processing of mica. Despite being the lead exporter of the type of mica used in electronics, there had not yet been comprehensive reporting on the scale or conditions in Madagascar’s mica industry. Working with the Dutch child protection group Terre des Hommes, Lisa and three members of the NBC investigative team spent nine days in summer 2019 in Madagascar where they drove about 400 miles throughout the south of the island and witnessed young children working alongside family members in dangerous unregulated mica mines as well as at processing centers. The workers, including children, are paid a pittance and descend into pits as deep as 50 feet to dig for and bring to the surface shards of mica. “‘We don’t have a choice,’ is something we heard a lot,” said Lisa. “Nothing prepared us for what we saw at the mines.” In addition to several mining sites, the NBC crew showed up at a coastal mica export company and interviewed a representative. Upon returning to New York, Lisa and her team continued research about the companies that ship mica and visited India in fall 2019, where there has been some progress in improving conditions for families and children in its historic mica mining industry. Mica is commonly used in industries including the beauty and electronics sector, as well as an ingredient in many paints.
Above and bottom of opposite page, Lisa Cavazuti ’08 in Madagascar with an NBC investigative team. 60
Westminster Bulletin
