University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Professor Liza Vertinsky has been named a 2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Vertinsky is one of 24 scholars and writers chosen by the Carnegie Corporation of New York from a record 381 nominees for this honor. The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program supports research aimed at understanding and addressing political polarization in the United States.
Vertinsky is a lawyer and economist who researches and teaches at the intersection of law, economics, and technology. Her areas of expertise include the regulation of emerging technologies and healthcare markets, AI and the law, intellectual property and innovation, contract law and theory, and law and economics.
Vertinsky’s fellowship project will convene leading experts across communications, journalism, business, law, economics, data science, sociology, and technology, alongside pioneers developing new local news models. Together, they will identify the defining features of an independent, self-sustaining digital local news ecosystem, as well as the structural reforms and infrastructure required to support it. The project will culminate in a comprehensive report outlining a practical blueprint for rebuilding the kind of thriving, independent, sustainable local news ecosystem essential to addressing polarization.
“I am so very honored and grateful to be included in the 2026 cohort of Carnegie fellows working to understand and respond to the harms arising from political polarization,” said Vertinsky. “My project is motivated by a belief that in order to confront and address the current challenges to our democratic functioning we need to reimagine local news ecosystems that are resilient to a rapidly shifting media and technology landscape. I am excited to have the chance to build on the amazing work of past and present fellows in pursuit of this goal.”
The 2026 class of Carnegie fellows is the third cohort focused on developing a body of rigorous, evidence-based research about what can be done to strengthen the forces of cohesion in the United States, an overarching priority for the foundation’s grantmaking. Honorees receive a $200,000 research stipend.
The class includes 12 scholars from public universities, 11 from private universities, and one from a public university in Canada. The final selections were made by a distinguished panel of 11 jurors comprised of presidents, deans, and senior academics from some of the nation’s premier universities, research institutions, and think tanks.
Vertinsky, who joined the Maryland Carey Law faculty in 2022, earned her JD, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Last year, she was elected to the prominent American Law Institute (ALI).