Several OHIO alumni were part of teams that were awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize, as well as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography.
Loren Holmes and Marc Lester, graduates of the Scripps College of Communication鈥檚 School of Visual Communication were part of the team that won for Public Service. Rick Green, an alum of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism and editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, led team that won for Breaking News Reporting, and , a 2018 graduate of the School of Visual Communication, who is a staff photographer for the Boston Globe, was a finalist in Feature Photography.
鈥淲e are proud of our alumni for this major accomplishment and for their dedication to storytelling and journalism,鈥 OHIO President M. Duane Nellis said. 鈥淚t is a testament not only to their individual hard work but to our Scripps College for helping give them the skills to succeed in their careers.鈥
Green鈥檚 team won for a series of stories into more than issued by outgoing Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, including connections between released inmates and families who donated to Bevin鈥檚 campaign. The cases have since prompted a federal investigation.
鈥淪omething wasn鈥檛 right in Frankfort,鈥 Green said. 鈥淲e expanded our statehouse reporting team and just threw everybody at it鈥. I flooded the zone because it was a hell of a story that needed to be told, and we were going to be the newspaper to tell it.鈥
Green said the effort was 鈥渙ld-fashioned, hard-nosed, shoe-leather reporting鈥 that he learned in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. The timing of the news of the Pulitzer win, with all staff working from home, was great, he said.
鈥淵ou have this incredible tsunami of emotion. You think about the staff that you build, the staff that just worked through the entire month of December, to give their heart and soul for this story,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tremendous honor. It鈥檒l be something that I鈥檒l look on in pride for the rest of my career and the rest of my life, and knowing that 91探花 played a part in that, that makes it even more special.鈥
Holmes and Lester鈥檚 team won for their series 鈥,鈥 a yearlong examination of the failures of the criminal-justice system in communities across Alaska. According to Holmes, the reporting found that , and some towns, desperate for police of any kind, , domestic violence, assault and other offenses that would make them ineligible to work in law enforcement or even as security guards anywhere else in the country.
鈥淚 feel honored and conflicted. It feels amazing to win one of the highest honors in journalism, but at the same time, for many of the people in our stories, not much has changed,鈥 Holmes said. 鈥淢any of these communities still have no local cops and a rate of sexual violence that is much higher than the national average.鈥
The OHIO VisCom alums traveled to remote communities in Alaska, capturing the reality of many rural areas that still don鈥檛 have running water or a sewer.
Holmes鈥 primary focus for the project was taking still photos, as well as aerial photos and videos. He also produced two 360-degree video projects, one documenting life in a community that has law enforcement, and another that has none.
鈥淚'm pleased that we are continuing this project another year, this time focusing more on sexual assault,鈥 Holmes added. 鈥淟aw enforcement and sexual assault have long been problems in Alaska, and it's good that we are shining a light on the problems.鈥
Clark, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was named a finalist in Feature Photography for her work on a photostory that looked into a working Maine family, the Lupiens, as they fell into homelessness and found new housing.
鈥淚 often think back through the past few years of my life and it鈥檚 still hard for me to comprehend how I got here,鈥 Clark said. 鈥淭he VisCom department is truly legendary and one-of-a-kind. I love and miss them with all of my heart.鈥
