2023 Awards



The annual Goldsmith Awards, presented by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, honor public service journalism that has an impact on United States public policy and the functioning of government.

This year’s event celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. Anna Wolfe, of Mississippi Today, won the prize for her series on corruption in Mississippi’s federal welfare system, “The Backchannel.”

Veteran journalist and PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff received the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Two awards were also given for books published in the last year on a topic at the intersection of media, politics, and public policy.

The Goldsmith Awards Program strives to foster a more insightful and spirited public debate about government, politics and the press, and to demonstrate the essential role of a free press in a thriving democracy.

Ceremony Date

March 15, 2023

Note

The Goldsmith Prizes are funded by an annual gift from the Goldsmith Fund of the Greenfield Foundation.

Judges

The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting finalists and winners are selected from the nominated submissions by a panel of nine expert judges. Judges recused themselves from voting on entries from their employers. Nancy Gibbs, Director of the Shorenstein Center, chaired the judges meeting.

The 2023 Goldsmith Investigative Reporting Prize judges were:

Jill Abramson

Former Executive Editor of the New York Times
Finalist for the 1997 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Kathleen Carroll

Former Executive Editor of the Associated Press. Winner of the 2020 Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism

Sarah Cohen

Professor and Knight Chair in Journalism
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Arizona State University
2009 Winner and 2007 Finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Emily Dreyfuss

Senior Managing Editor, Technology and Social Change Project, Shorenstein Center
Former Editorial Director, Protocol Media, and Senior Writer, Wired

Betsy Fischer Martin

Executive Director, Women & Politics Institute and Executive in Residence in the Department of Government at American University. Former Executive Producer of Meet the Press with Tim Russert.

Mike Greenfield

Trustee of the Greenfield Foundation (financial supporters of the Goldsmith Awards Program); Co-Founder and CEO of Change Research.

Corey Johnson

Reporter, ProPublica
2022 Finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Carmen Nobel

Program Director and Editor in Chief of The Journalists Resource, Shorenstein Center

Connor Sheets

Investigative and Enterprise Reporter, The Los Angeles Times
2019 Finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

2023 Award and Prize Winners

Finalists for Goldsmith Investigative Reporting Prize