Boston University Alumni Recipients
of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism

In 1972, Gerard O'Neill and Stephen Kurkjian became the first Boston University alumni to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. In that same tradition -- by examining global issues, investigating local and international affairs, and photographing the people and places that have forever changed the fabric of our world -- an additional 21 Boston University alumni have since earned a combined 31 Pulitzer Prizes spanning nearly every category of print journalism and photography.

Tom Fiedler, ’71 MS	Tom Fiedler is executive editor of the Miami Herald, where he oversees a staff of nearly 400 news professionals. In 1991, while writing for the Herald, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting for a team report on the Yahweh cult’s political influence and link to several murders. During his career spanning more than three decades at the Herald, Fiedler has held positions including editor of the editorial pages, political editor and columnist, White House correspondent, and war correspondent during the Persian Gulf War. Most notably, he reported on every presidential contest between 1972 and 1996, and he wrote the Florida Institute of Government’s Almanac of Florida Politics (2000). In 2003, the College of Communication presented Fiedler with a Distinguished Alumni Award.
Ethan Forman, CAS’88, COM’93 MS	Ethan Forman is a former reporter for The Eagle-Tribune. He won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting with a team of Lawrence Eagle-Tribune reporters who covered a tragic story about the accidental drowning of four boys who fell through ice on the Merrimack River. During the past 11 years, he has served as reporter for the Ashland TAB, the Tri-Town Transcript, and was the editor of the Stoneham Sun and The Reading Advocate. He and his wife, Larisa, and two children, Sophie and Aveen, live in Swampscott, Mass.
Daniel Goodrich, '75	Daniel Goodrich is a photographer for Newsday, the sixth largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the U.S. He was a member of the Newsday reporting team that received the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Reporting for its coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800. In 1988, when Pope John Paul II made his inaugural visit to the U.S., Goodrich was selected as the only photojournalist among 20,000 accredited journalists to travel with, and photograph for publication, the Pope during his private moments. In 1996, he was one of only two American photojournalists invited to Rome to join the Vatican press pool and document the second papal visit to the U.S.
Stan Grossfeld, '80 MS	Stan Grossfeld is an associate editor at The Boston Globe. In 1984, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for his unusual photographs of the people of war-torn Lebanon. In 1985, his photographs of Ethiopian famine and illegal aliens on the Mexican border won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. The Boston Press Photographers Association has named Grossfeld New England Photographer of the Year five times, and he has published four books, including Lost Futures: Our Forgotten Children (1997), in which Muhammed Ali wrote the forward and to which Mother Teresa contributed. The College of Communication presented Grossfeld with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987.
Joseph Hallinan, '84	Joseph Hallinan is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. In 1991, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting while working for The Indianapolis Star for a series of stories he co-wrote with Susan Headden about the medical malpractice system in Indiana. Hallinan also spent a year as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1997. His first book, Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation (2001), was named a New York Times notable book and a Los Angeles Times best book of the year. In 1992, the College of Communication presented Hallinan with a Distinguished Alumni Award. He and his wife, Pamela, have a son, Jack, and are expecting twin girls in January.
Karen Elliot House, Hon. '03 LHD	Karen Elliot House is a senior vice president at the Dow Jones & Company, and publisher of the four national and two international print editions of The Wall Street Journal. She received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for her series of interviews with Jordan's King Hussein while working as a foreign editor for The Wall Street Journal. Currently, Elliott House is also a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Boston University presented Elliot House with an honorary degree in 2003.
Kenneth Irby CGS ’81, COM ’83	Kenneth Irby is the visual journalism group leader and diversity director at The Poynter Institute, and founder of their photojournalism program. He contributed as a photo editor to three of Newsday’s Pulitzer Prize-winning projects: in 1992, for International Reporting for coverage of the Persian Gulf War; in 1993, for International Reporting for exposing human rights violations in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina; and in 1995, for Investigative Reporting for revealing disability-pension abuses by local police. Irby has traveled to Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Jamaica, and Denmark preaching excellence in photojournalism. He also has participated in the 2003 Flying Short Course, served as photo manager at two Olympic Games, chaired the Unity ’99 Visual Task Force, and is Poynter’s representative to the Best of Photojournalism Committee.
Stephen Kurkjian, CAS '66	Stephen Kurkjian is the senior metropolitan editor for The Boston Globe, and one of three founding members of the Globe’s investigative Spotlight Team. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting on two occasions: in 1972, for exposing corruption in Somerville, Mass.; and, in 1980, for coverage of Boston’s transit system. He also shared the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In addition, his reporting has won him and the Globe more than two dozen other national and regional journalism awards, and his article on the Massachusetts prison system was acknowledged by Washington Monthly as the Best Story in US Newspapers for March 2004. Kurkjian is also a non-practicing member of the Massachusetts Bar.
Justin Lane, '95	Justin Lane is the New York bureau chief for the European Pressphoto Agency. In 2002, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his freelance contributions to The New York Times’ coverage of the September 11 attacks. In 2003, Lane traveled to Iraq on behalf of the Carr Foundation, the founders of Harvard’s Center for Human Rights Policy, to document cultural looting, the crisis facing Iraqi women, and the uncovering of mass graves. His photographs from Iraq have garnered two gallery shows in New York, and his work has been published in newspapers, magazines, and a number of books, including A Nation Challenged (2002) and Portraits of Grief (2003). He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Lauren.
Patricia Maldonado, '91 MS	Patricia Maldonado is the communications director for the Human Services Coalition, where she oversees media, public relations and membership development. While a staff writer at the Miami Herald in 1999, she was a member of the Herald team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting about voter fraud in the 1998 election of Miami’s mayor and commissioners. She also has worked at the Associated Press in Miami, for the Knight Foundation, and was the newspaper adviser and instructor at Miami-Dade Community College.
Gerard O'Neill, '70 MS	Gerard O’Neill is a former reporter for The Boston Globe, and was one of three founding members of the Globe’s investigative Spotlight Team. In 1972, he and the Spotlight Team were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting for their exposure of corruption in Somerville, Mass. O’Neill has co-authored two books on the Boston underworld: The Underboss: the Rise and Fall of a Mafia Family (1989) and Black Mass (2000). He is currently a lecturer in journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication.
Sacha Pfeiffer, MET '94	Sacha Pfeiffer is a reporter for The Boston Globe, covering legal affairs with an emphasis on the intersection of law and business. As a member of the Globe’s Spotlight Team, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 for coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Earlier in her career at the Globe, she was the state’s court reporter, where she covered several prominent cases, including the medical malpractice lawsuit filed after the death of Boston Celtics basketball star Reggie Lewis. She has also written for The Boston Globe Magazine, and recently returned from a year-long journalism fellowship at Stanford University.
Michael Rezendes, CAS '78	Michael Rezendes is an investigative reporter for The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team. He has investigated sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, for which he shared the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and financial corruption in the nation's charitable foundations, among other subjects. He is co-author of Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church, (2002) and a contributing author of Sin Against the Innocents: Sexual Abuse by Priests and the Role of the Catholic Church (2004).
James Savage, DGE '59, COM '61	James Savage is the retired associate editor of investigations for the Miami Herald. During his career spanning nearly four decades at the Herald, he contributed to two Pulitzer Prize-winning projects: in 1993, for Public Service for coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew and how lax zoning, inspection and building codes had contributed to the destruction; and, in 1987, for National Reporting for the Herald’s reporting on the U.S.-Iran-Contra connection. In 1990, the College of Communication presented Savage with a Distinguished Alumni Award.
William Sherman, '69 MS	William Sherman is a reporter for the New York Daily News. While working for the Daily News in 1974, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting for a series exposing extreme abuse of the Medicaid program. In 1978, Sherman transitioned to broadcast news, and later received an Emmy as a correspondent for ABC News and a Peabody Award as a correspondent and producer for Christian Science Monitor Reports. He returned to print in 1995, first to the New York Post and, in 1998, back to the Daily News. Sherman has also written for numerous magazines including Esquire, ArtNews, Vogue, Mirabella, Allure, Penthouse and Seven Days, and is the author of 42nd Street Times Square (1980).
Onell Soto, '89	Onell Soto is a reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune. He was part of the team that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for the Union-Tribune and Copley News Service for reporting that uncovered the largest bribes paid to a member of Congress and led to the imprisonment of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. He covers federal courts and law enforcement for the Union-Tribune and worked for newspapers in Saginaw, Mich., and Long Beach, Calif., before becoming Washington correspondent for the The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. His wife, Robin, is a nurse practitioner.
Mark Thompson, '75	Mark Thompson is a senior correspondent at Time, where he has played a key role in Time’s coverage of the Iraq war and its aftermath. In 1985, when reporting for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for his reports about fatal flaws in the Army’s Huey and Cobra helicopters that had resulted in the unnecessary deaths of 250 U.S. servicemen. In response to his reports, the Army grounded 600 helicopters for repairs. In 1987, he served on the Pentagon’s first operational press pool in the Persian Gulf. Since joining Time in 1994, he has covered the military beat, including a lone interview with the first woman to command a U.S. warship. He now investigates political controversies, such as cronyism in the Bush administration and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The College of Communication presented Thompson with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993.
Helen Ubinas, '94	Helen Ubinas is columnist for the Hartford Courant, where she writes on events of national and local significance, from same sex marriage to the death penalty. In 1999, she was a member of a Courant reporting team whose coverage of a Connecticut lottery worker’s shooting rampage won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. Ubinas’ work has also been recognized by the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and the New England Associated Press News Executives Association. She and her husband, Michael Dunne, live in Connecticut.
Don Van Natta, Jr., '86	Don Van Natta, Jr. is an investigative correspondent for The New York Times. While with The Miami Herald in 1993, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the newspaper’s coverage of Hurricane Andrew. After joining the New York Times in 1995, he was a member of two reporting teams that received Pulitzer Prizes: in 2002, for Explanatory Reporting for coverage of the worldwide terror threat posed by the Al Qaeda network; and, in 1999, for National Reporting on the corporate sale of U.S. technology to China with governmental approval. At the Times, Van Natta has also covered terrorism, the crash of TWA Flight 800, the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, and the deadlocked 2000 presidential election. He is the author of First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush (2003). The College of Communication presented Van Natta with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000. He is married to Lizette Alvarez, and they have two daughters, Isabel and Sofia.
Joan Vennochi, '75	Joan Vennochi is a columnist for The Boston Globe, where she writes on local and national politics for the op-ed page. In 1980, she was a member of the Globe’s Spotlight Team who received a Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting for a series on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. During her career at the Globe, she has held positions including City Hall bureau chief, State House bureau chief, and columnist of “The Private Sector.” Vennochi is also a non-practicing member of the Massachusetts Bar. She and her husband, Thomas, and their children, Nicholas and Anna, live in Melrose, Mass.
Susan Walsh, '87	Susan Walsh is a staff photographer for the Associated Press and president of the White House News Photographers’ Association. She was a member of the Associated Press team who won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for coverage of the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton. In addition to political coverage, Walsh has photographed a half dozen Super Bowls and four Olympic games. She says she truly enjoys the “front-row seat to history” that journalism allows. Walsh and her husband, Capt. John Widmayer, live in Annapolis, Md.
Meredith Warren, '01	Meredith Warren is the deputy chief of staff for communications for the Massachusetts House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. While at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, she was a member of a reporting team who received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the accidental deaths of four boys who fell through ice on the Merrimack River. During her time at the Eagle-Tribune, she also covered the Massachusetts Statehouse. In addition, Warren is a member of the COM Young Alumni Council.
George Will, Hon. '03 LTD	George Will is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. In 1977, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his newspaper columns on a variety of topics. In addition to his syndicated column, Will writes a bi-weekly column for Newsweek. He also serves as a contributing analyst with ABC News and has been a regular member of ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning since 1981. He is the author of four books and seven collections of his columns have been published. In 1997, the National Journal named him one of the 25 most influential Washington journalists. Boston University presented Will with an honorary degree in 2003.
Tom Wolfe, '78	Tom Wolfe manages technology projects for the North American division of London-based Henderson Global Investors. While a picture editor at the Hartford Courant, he was a member of the team awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for coverage of a Connecticut lottery worker’s shooting rampage. Wolfe’s work as a photographer and an editor at publications including the Courant, The San Diego Union-Tribune and the Valley News (N.H.) has also been recognized by The National Press Photographers’ Association, The Associated Press, and the Society for Newspaper Design. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Linda.