From top left: Garance Burke, Susie Neilson, Kathleen Hennessey, Cynthia Dizikes, Serginho Roosblad, Nick Miroff, Joaquin Palomino, Brett Murphy, Andy Mannix, Tracy Weber and Maggie Beidelman.
UC Berkeley Journalism alumni Susie Neilson (’19) at the San Francisco Chronicle, Garance Burke (’04) at The Associated Press and Kathleen Hennessey (’04) at the Minnesota Star Tribune were named 2026 Pulitzer Prize winners by the Pulitzer Board at Columbia University today. Another eight Berkeley Journalism alumni were honored as part of award-winning or finalist teams.
“We are extraordinarily proud of our alumni for stories that illuminated facts in dark places and chronicled humanity in the face of brutality,” said Michael D. Bolden, dean of UC Berkeley Journalism. “The Pulitzers are exciting and gratifying, but the real prize is the powerful impact of these stories on people and communities, rights and rule of law.”
The Winners
Alum Susie Neilson (’19) shared the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting with Megan Fan Munce and Sara DiNatale for their San Francisco Chronicle series “Burned.” The series exposes how insurance companies used algorithmic tools that “failed Californians who lost their homes to fire by systematically undervaluing their properties, denying claims and making it impossible for them to rebuild,” according to the Pulitzer announcement. The series was done with the support of more than a dozen colleagues, including Berkeley Journalism alum, visuals editor Maggie Beidelman (’13).
Dean Michael D. Bolden pictured celebrating with Susie Neilson at the San Francisco Chronicle May 4, 2026.
Alum Garance Burke (’04), global investigative journalist at The Associated Press, shared the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with colleagues Dake Kang, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal and Yael Grauer for what the jury called “an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance created in Silicon Valley, advanced in China and spreading worldwide before returning to America for secret new uses by the U.S. Border Patrol.” AP video producer Serginho Roosblad (’18) contributed reporting.
AP said reporting for the story was often challenging given widespread fear in China and that it spanned three continents over nearly three years. “AP took on some of the world’s most powerful companies, and several harassed journalists off the record to stop publication,” noted the publication’s media announcement.
AP also highlighted its “innovative use of visual journalism, with photographers using a novel technique to show how invisible beams — from phones, security cameras and license plate readers – use facial recognition to track vehicles and people.”
The staff of the Minnesota Star Tribune, led by alum Kathleen Hennessey (’04), editor and senior vice president, won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for the publication’s coverage of a shooting at a back-to-school Mass at a Catholic school where two children were killed and 17 wounded. The Pulitzer jury noted the coverage as “powerful stories marked by thoroughness and compassion.” Andy Mannix (’15) contributed reporting.
“For the journalists in our newsroom, it was personal and up-close,” said Hennessey, in the Minnesota Star Tribune’s announcement. “I’d be crazy to say in a newsroom full of parents, it didn’t hit a certain nerve.”
“We felt responsible immediately to tell this story,” Hennessey said. “To confirm the facts, to get to the scene, to make the pictures, to make the video, to be up close and to be there.”
The Finalists
Joaquin Palomino and Cynthia Dizikes celebrate in the San Francisco Chronicle newsroom on Monday after being named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for their series “Failed to Death.” Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
Cynthia Dizikes (’08) and Joaquin Palomino (’15) were Pulitzer finalists in the Investigative Reporting category for their four-part series “Failed to Death,” in the San Francisco Chronicle about the negative effects of California’s for-profit psychiatric hospitals.
A San Francisco Chronicle story noted that Dizikes and Palomino created a first-of-its-kind dataset using state and county reports, 911 calls and medical records to show “widespread abuse, neglect and violence occurring inside these institutions’ locked wards, including hundreds of physical and sexual assaults and at least 18 deaths related to poor care between 2019 and 2024.”
Alum Brett Murphy (‘16) of ProPublica was a Pulitzer finalist in the Explanatory Reporting category for what the Pulitzer jury called “an authoritative and consequential examination of the Trump administration’s freeze of humanitarian aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development.” The coverage showed how the sudden dismantling of the agency put hundreds of thousands of people at risk of preventable death and other harms and directly led to children dying from malnutrition, pregnant mothers eating mud for nutrition, widespread exposure to toxins and sewage and more. ProPublica’s Managing Editor Tracy Weber (’89) was an editor on the series.
The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff (‘06) was a Pulitzer finalist in Beat Reporting for what the jury called “sustained and vigorous coverage of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.” Miroff’s reporting included a story about a man sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison and another about pressures on ICE officers to meet daily deportation quotas.
Last year’s Pulitzer Prize honors for UC Berkeley Journalism alumni
In 2025, alumni Parker Yesko (’16) and Catherine Winter (’87) were on The New Yorker team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting for the investigative podcast “In the Dark” about the 2006 US massacre at Haditha.
Alumni Katey Rusch (’20) and Casey Smith (’20) and the Investigative Reporting Program itself were named Pulitzer Prize finalists for a story in the San Francisco Chronicle that documented a secret system that concealed police misconduct in California.
Susie Neilson (’19), a Pulitzer Prize winner this year, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for “Fast and Fatal” about deaths from police car chases, a story that was also published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Read about last year’s Pulitzer winners and finalists here. Read about UC Berkeley Journalism’s Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists over the years here.
—Marlena Telvick
