In depth series written by jounalism alum wins Pulitzer Prize

Career Achievement Award:
Communication

Sarah Ryley is the first communication graduate to win a Pulitzer Prize, the 2017 journalism prize for public service. In conjunction with ProPublica and the New York Daily News, where she was a reporter at the time, she exposed the New York Police Department’s abuse of eviction rules to force hundreds of mostly poor minorities from their homes and businesses over alleged criminal activities. The series led to the passage of 13 laws, a class-action lawsuit and a city investigation.

Her data-driven reporting at the Daily News also resulted in sweeping reforms to the NYPD’s Broken Windows policing tactics, including the decriminalization of several minor offenses that put hundreds of thousands of mostly black and Hispanic people through the criminal justice system each year. She currently works as an investigative reporter for The Trace,a national nonprofit journalism outlet that reports on American gun vviolence.