FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Megan Mulligan, [email protected] or 212-854-3841
Nicole Carroll
New York, NY (Oct. 26, 2018) — Nicole Carroll, editor in chief of USA Today, has been elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board, Columbia University announced today.
“I’m incredibly honored to join the board,” Carroll said. “Our mission as journalists is to seek truth and to inform, educate and empower our communities. The Pulitzer Prizes honor the best of this critically important work.”
Prior to being named to her current position in March 2018, Carroll served as vice president of news and editor of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, which she joined in 1999.
The Republic and the USA Today Network won the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2018 for “vivid and timely reporting that masterfully combined text, video, podcasts and virtual reality to examine, from multiple perspectives, the difficulties and unintended consequences of fulfilling President Trump's pledge to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.”
Under Carroll’s leadership, the Republic/azcentral.com was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News in 2012 and 2014.
“Nicole Carroll’s experience in regional newspapers and her current role as editor of USA Today will add important, new perspectives to our board discussions,” said Dana Canedy, Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.
At The Arizona Republic, Carroll has held positions ranging from city editor to planning editor to managing editor for features. She was named executive editor of the Republic and azcentral.com in 2008. That year, Carroll also was inducted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2015, she was named vice president of news and editor, and in 2016 she added regional responsibilities, serving as Southwest regional editor for the USA Today Network.
Carroll received the National Press Foundation’s 2017 Benjamin C. Bradlee “Editor of the Year” award. She has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes and as a judge for the national Hearst Journalism Awards, which honor the best in collegiate journalism. In 2018, she was elected to the board of the American Society of News Editors.
Carroll graduated from the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in 1991. She earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 1996. After graduation from ASU, she held reporting and editing jobs at the El Paso Times, USA Today and the East Valley (Mesa) Tribune.
The Pulitzer Prizes were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.
The 19-member Pulitzer Board is composed mainly of leading journalists or news executives from media outlets across the U.S., as well as five academics or persons in the arts. The dean of Columbia's journalism school and the administrator of the prizes are nonvoting members. The chair rotates annually to the most senior member or members. The board is self-perpetuating in the election of members. Voting members may serve three terms of three years for a total of nine years.