Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

A Mexican journalist whose articles have illuminated Latin America for her readers, Alma Guillermoprieto is a contributor to the British-based Guardian newspaper, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Newsweek and The New Yorker, she has covered Argentina’s “dirty war,” post-Sandinista Nicaragua, the “Shining Path” rebels in Peru, the Colombian civil war and the Mexican drug wars. In 1982, she was one of only two reporters to investigate rumors of mass killings perpetrated by the U.S.-supported Salvadoran army in El Mozote, El Salvador. When she published her reports in The Washington Post, the Reagan Administration tried to discredit her, but she stood firm. Eventually, the U.S. government was forced to confirm her story.

For almost 20 years, Amira Hass has written critically about both Israeli and Palestinian authorities. A reporter and columnist for Ha’aretz Daily, she has demonstrated her ability to defy boundaries of gender, ethnicity and nationality in her pursuit of the truth in her reporting. In covering the Palestinian Occupied Territories, her goal has been to provide her readers with detailed information about Israeli policies and especially that of restrictions of the freedom of movement. For many years, she made her home first in Gaza City and then in Ramallah.

In her more than four decades with the Associated Press, Edith Lederer has worked on every continent except Antarctica covering wars, famines, nuclear issues and political upheavals. She is currently the AP's chief correspondent at the United Nations. Lederer was the first female resident correspondent in Vietnam in 1972, the first woman to head an AP foreign bureau in Peru and the first journalist to file the bulletin announcing the start of the first Gulf War in 1991.

A journalist for more than three decades, Peta Thornycroft is one of the few remaining independent journalists in Zimbabwe. As a correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in London, Thornycroft, 62, covered the 2002 election when President Robert Mugabe stole victory with a campaign of violence in the midst of the country’s spiraling economic crisis. She also contributes to Voice of America and Independent Group in South Africa.

Elena Poniatowska’s career spans more than a half century. A renowned journalist and author, Poniatowska, 74, is the author of various novels, short stories, essays, a play and "testimonial narratives" (chronicles of events compiled from eyewitness interviews). She moved to Mexico during World War II and later attended secondary school in Torresdale, Pennsylvania.

Molly Ivins has been a nationally syndicated political columnist with Creators Syndicate since 2001. Her column, a humorous approach to national politics and Texas, appears in more than 100 newspapers.

Belva Davis has more than 30 years of experience as a public affairs journalist in the San Francisco area. Now semi-retired, Davis continues to work as a special projects reporter at KRON-TV and as host of This Week in Northern California on KQED-TV.

Magdalena Ruiz Guinazu’s career in the media has spanned close to 50 years. She is one of Argentina’s most distinguished journalists. As host of Magdalena Tempranisimo on Radio Mitre in Buenos Aires, she broadcasts to one of Argentina’s largest audiences. She also writes for the daily newspapers La Nacion and Pagina 12, and since 2002 has been host of a daily evening show, La vuelta con Magdalena (Back with Magadalena). She is the founder and current president of Asociacion Periodistas, an Argentine press freedom organization. In addition, she has produced documentary television films on various subjects, including the trial of the Argentine military junta and censorship during the years of military rule in Argentina.

Mary McGrory joined the Washington Post as a columnist in September 1981. She joined the Washington Star in 1947 and debuted as a national commentator in 1954 when assigned the biggest story of the day, the Army-McCarthy hearings. Her column has been syndicated since 1960 and currently appears two times a week. In 1975, McGrory received journalism’s highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. The award’s citation read "for trenchant commentary spread over more than 20 years as a reporter and a columnist in the nation’s capital."

In more than 60 years as a journalist, Colleen "Koky" Dishon has opened many doors previously closed to women.

She began her career in 1941 while still in high school at the Zanesville (Ohio) Sunday Times Signal. During World War II, she worked for the Associated Press and later became editor and president of a news and feature service she founded. Dishon then worked at newspapers in the Midwest before joining the Chicago Tribune in 1975. At the Tribune, she was responsible for creating at least 15 new sections for the newspaper. In 1981, only six years after she was hired, she became assistant managing editor/features, and in 1982, a year later, she became the first woman on the Tribune's masthead.

Flora Lewis was one of handful of women who forged successful careers as foreign correspondents. From her first reporting assignment as a UCLA campus stringer for the Los Angeles Times to her job as The New York Times foreign affairs columnist, Lewis's cleanly crafted prose and wide-ranging intellect brought the world into focus for her readers.

In more than 30 years as a reporter, columnist and editorial writer for the St. Petersburg Times (Florida), Peggy Peterman fought the twin battles of racism and sexism in the newsroom while consistently setting high standards for herself and serving as a role model for others.

Bonnie Angelo has covered a wide range of events in all 50 states and more than 60 countries around the world as a correspondent for Time magazine. After 11 years as a Washington correspondent covering politics at the White House, in 1978 she was appointed London bureau chief and thus became the first woman to head a Time bureau overseas. Eight years later, she was named New York bureau chief for Time and later became its first correspondent-at-large. Angelo's pioneering spirit and determination have made her a well-respected journalist and a role model for other women.

"Do something to help another woman every day." This motto describes the way Nancy Woodhull lived her life as journalist and activist, and as a mother and a friend. When she died of breast cancer in April 1997 at age 52, Woodhull had already risen to great heights within the news media. At the same time, she boldly challenged the industry on a wide range of diversity and equity issues. She made it to the top of the news media without ever compromising her commitment to women's rights.  

As the editorial page editor for The Washington Post, Meg Greenfield was one of the most powerful women in newspaper journalism in the United States. She was responsible for the tone, direction and policy of one of the nation's most politically influential publications. Greenfield was able to strengthen or discourage careers, both in journalism and politics, and to shape national policy.