Laura Sullivan (born about 1974) is a

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

and

investigative reporter Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend ...

for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR). Her investigations air regularly on ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 a ...

'', ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'', and other

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

programs. She is also an on-air correspondent for the PBS show Frontline. Sullivan's work specializes in shedding light on some of the country's most disadvantaged people. She is one of NPR's most decorated journalists, with three

Peabody Awards The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

, three

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

s, and more than a dozen other prestigious national awards.

Early life and education

Sullivan graduated from

Lick-Wilmerding High School Lick-Wilmerding High School is a private college-preparatory high school located in San Francisco, California, United States. History Lick-Wilmerding High School was founded on September 21, 1874, as the California School of Mechanical Arts, a ...

in San Francisco,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and the

Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism (branded as Northwestern Medill; formally the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications) is the journalism school of Northwestern University. It offers both undergraduate and graduat ...

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. In 1996, Sullivan and two fellow university seniors expanded a class assignment that ultimately freed four men (Ford Heights Four) who had been wrongfully convicted of a 1978

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

in Chicago's South Side; two were

death-row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and Capital punishment, sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state o ...

inmates. The case was one of several that led to a moratorium on

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Sullivan wrote about the project, which won a special citation from Investigative Reporters and Editors, in an essay for the Sunday June 27, 1999 edition of the

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

Career

2000s

Before coming to

in 2004, Sullivan covered the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, and

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

from the ''

''s

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

bureau Bureau ( ) may refer to: Agencies and organizations *Government agency *Public administration * News bureau, an office for gathering or distributing news, generally for a given geographical location * Bureau (European Parliament), the administra ...

. In 2007, Sullivan won the 2007

Daniel Schorr Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his te ...

Journalism Prize. and her first Gracie for her series "Life in Solitary Confinement". Her 2007 news series investigating

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

of Native American women won her first duPont. It also won the DART Award for Excellence in coverage of Trauma for outstanding reporting, an RTNDA Edward R Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting and her second Gracie Award for American Women in Radio and Television. In 2008, her series "36 Years of Solitary: Murder, Death and Justice on Angola" earned Sullivan her first Peabody, an Investigative Reporters and Editors award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Award for investigative reporting.

2010s

In 2010, Sullivan's three part series Bonding For Profit: Behind the Bail Bond System examined the deep and costly flaws of bail bonding in the United States. In addition to her second Peabody and duPont, the series was also honored by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the

Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice. Among other activities, the center or ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

. In 2011, Sullivan produced a series on the state of foster care for Native American children focusing largely on alleged wrongdoing in the state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

and garnering her a third Peabody and her second Robert F. Kennedy award for investigative reporting among other awards. Also in 2011, Sullivan won her second commendation from

Investigative Reporters and Editors Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) is an American nonprofit organization that focuses on improving the quality of journalism, in particular investigative journalism. Formed in 1975, it presents the IRE Awards and holds conferences a ...

for her two-part series examining the origin of the Arizona SB 1070 immigration law. On August 9, 2013, NPR's ombudsman released an analysis of Sullivan's South Dakota series that concluded the series was "deeply flawed" and "should not have been aired as it was." However, NPR stood by the series and called the ombudsman's report "unorthodox, the sourcing selective, fact-gathering uneven and the conclusions, subjective or without foundation." Two subsequent reports, one by a coalition of nine Lakota tribes, and another by the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, reviewed the ombudsman's report and found the NPR series was sound. In May 2015, a federal judge ruled in summary judgment in favor of South Dakota's tribes finding that the State of South Dakota and its Department of Social Services had "failed to protect Indian parents' fundamental rights." In May 2016, Sullivan collaborated with the PBS series Frontline as a correspondent for an hour long documentary examining the profit-driven nature of the insurance business after disasters. Prior to this, Sullivan had worked on other investigations in disasters into the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

delving into the charity's finances and its performance after the Haiti earthquake and

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

. Those stories were honored with Sullivan's second Goldsmith Award from the

and her third commendation from

. Sullivan continued to collaborate with Frontline as a correspondent on five more films, Poverty, Politics and Profit, which examined the billions spent housing the poor, and Blackout in Puerto Rico, which investigated the federal response, Wall Street and years of neglect on the island in the wake of

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

. Blackout in Puerto Rico earned the team the 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for Video. Other Frontlines she was involved with include Trump's Trade Wars in 2019, Plastic Wars in 2020 and The Hospital Divide in 2021, which was a finalist for the Peabody Award. In 2022, Sullivan won her third duPont award for her podcast Waste Land and series airing on Planet Money and

in partnership with Frontline which investigated "How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled" unearthing internal records from the oil industry. The series also investigated how oil companies evaded regulation for 40 years over spilling billions of plastic pellets into the environment. In 2022, citing NPR's investigation, California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation into the actions of the oil and plastic industry saying it took part in "an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis." 2021

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

nominated for her work reporting on the inequalities in the American healthcare system exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

External links