Alexandra Berzon is an American investigative reporter for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. She previously wrote for

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...

and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. Her 2008 series of investigative stories about the deaths of construction workers on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas cit ...

for the ''

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays from 1990 to 2005 and is no ...

'' won the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...

and

The Hillman Prize The Hillman Prize is a journalism award given out annually by The Sidney Hillman Foundation, named for noted American labor leader Sidney Hillman Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of ...

. The Public Service Pulitzer cited "the courageous reporting by Alexandra Berzon, for the exposure of the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip amid lax enforcement of regulations, leading to changes in policy and improved safety conditions." The centerpiece was a four-part series entitled "Construction Deaths". Berzon began her investigation after nine construction workers died in eight separate accidents. Her series exposed the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration'' (OSHA ) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agen ...

's lax enforcement of regulations and highlighted the cozy relationship between safety regulators and builders. The series was cited in congressional hearings examining OSHA's record and led to changes in policy and improved safety conditions. With short biography and reprints of 20 works (''Las Vegas Sun'' articles March 30 to December 28, 2008).

Life

Before the ''Sun'', Berzon was a reporter for ''

Red Herring A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question. Red herring may also refer to: Animals * Red herring (fi ...

'', a business and technology magazine, and worked for the ''

Anchorage Daily News The ''Anchorage Daily News'' is a daily newspaper published by the Binkley Co., and based in Anchorage, Alaska. It is the most widely read newspaper and news website (adn.com) in the state of Alaska. The newspaper is headquartered in Anchora ...

'' and ''

San Antonio Express-News The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with ...

''. She has also reported for Salon.com, NPR, and American Public Media's American RadioWorks. Her coverage of South Pacific islanders who had emigrated to New Zealand due to fears of sea level rise was part of a series that won the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for Radio Reporting in 2007. Berzon grew up in Berkeley, California and graduated from

Concord Academy Concord Academy (also known as CA), established in 1922, is a coeducational, independent college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9-12. The school is situated in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1971, Concord Academy became ...

in 1997, then

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

in 2001. She then earned a master’s in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2006. Her mother,

Marsha Berzon Marsha Lee Berzon ( Siegel; born April 17, 1945) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Education and legal training Berzon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Radcliffe ...

, is a circuit judge on the

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

Awards

In addition to the Pulitzer for Public Service, Berzon has won Story of the Year, News Feature of the Year, and the First Amendment Award from the Nevada Press Association.Nevada Press Association: 2008 Awards
. She was also part of a team of ''

'' journalists that won the

Gerald Loeb Award The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...

for Large Newspapers for coverage of the Deepwater Horizon crisis. She and other graduate school classmates won a Polk Award for their radio series on early signs of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, which aired on PRI's '' Living on Earth'' and American Public Media's '' American RadioWorks''.

References

External links

Profile at ''Las Vegas Sun''

Wall Street Journal profile page for Alexandra Berzon
- includes photo and contact info * Article about Berzon on Poynter.org site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berzon, Alexandra American newspaper reporters and correspondents The Wall Street Journal people The New York Times people Vassar College alumni UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism alumni Journalists from California Writers from Berkeley, California Living people Place of birth missing (living people) American women journalists 1979 births Gerald Loeb Award winners for Large Newspapers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists