School of Media and Public Affairs Associate Professor Cheryl W. Thompson will join the NPR Investigations Team as a correspondent in January 2019, the acclaimed nonprofit news organization announced today.
An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Thompson contributes investigative stories and is a former metro reporter, national reporter and White House correspondent for The Washington Post where she was also part of a team that shared a Pulitzer Prize.
At the Post, Thompson was part of several blockbuster investigative projects, including a 2015 series on police shootings, a 2012 series examining more than 2,000 murders in Washington D.C. and a series on police officers killed with guns.
Her reporting in 2006 about Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson led to one of the longest prison sentences in Maryland for political corruption.
Thompson is a veteran investigative reporting instructor and was this year's SMPA Staub Faculty Excellence Award recipient, an annual honor recognizing contributions made inside and outside the classroom.
She was named the 2017 National Association of Black Journalists Educator of the Year and was the George Washington University Honey Nashman Spark a Life Award for Faculty Member of the Year recipient in 2014.
Thompson is a longtime board member and the current board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors and also counts a National Headliner Award and two NABJ Salute to Excellence awards among her many distinctions.
In 2019, Thompson will take leave from SMPA to pursue this opportunity, but she will remain engaged with the SMPA community and plans to return to the faculty.
“I know this experience will be a fascinating and important one for her and one that will benefit our students through Cheryl's commitment to remain engaged with SMPA,” said SMPA Director Frank Sesno.
NPR is a nationally acclaimed, non-profit multimedia organization and the leading provider of noncommercial news, information and entertainment programming to the American public.
Launched in 1970, NPR and its journalists and programs have won hundreds of awards including some of the most prestigious honors in journalism.
NPR is among the most successful news organizations in America and a growing presence in digital media including podcasting, mobile applications and social media.