Cheryl Arvidson, executive director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, is a veteran Washington journalist and prize-winning investigative reporter. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Arvidson spent 20 years specializing in political coverage, economic reporting and investigative journalism for the Washington news bureaus of United Press International and Cox Newspapers and as Washington bureau chief for the former Dallas Times Herald.  She spent eight years with the Freedom Forum, a non-profit media organization specializing in First Amendment issues, where her jobs included media relations director, program director for the Newseum, a museum of news, and as director of the Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowships. She is historian of The Gridiron Club, a group of prominent Washington journalists, and is a freelance writer, editor and communications consultant.