Eileen Sullivan is an American journalist who has covered counter-terrorism and national security for The Associated Press and '' The New York Times''. She won a

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in a U.S. news publicat ...

in 2012.

Early life

Sullivan was born in Alexandria, Virginia. Growing up, she was inspired to pursue journalism by her parents' longtime friend, award-winning journalist and author Robin Wright. She was fascinated by Wright's stories about her job and travels. Sullivan attended St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School in Alexandria, where she participated in the French Club and Students Against Driving Drunk. Her school sports activities included lacrosse, track, and basketball, and she was the co-captain of the varsity field hockey team. She was elected to the Honor Council her junior and senior years, and graduated in 1995. Sullivan studied English at Villanova University. While there, she wrote for '' The Villanovan'', the school newspaper, and interned at a magazine in Philadelphia. She graduated in 1999 with honors.

Career

Sullivan started her career 1997 working for the ''

Courier-Post The ''Courier-Post'' is a morning daily newspaper that serves South Jersey in the Delaware Valley. It is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and serves most of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. The paper has 30,313 daily paid subscriber ...

'' in

Cherry Hill, New Jersey Cherry Hill is a township within Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a population of 74,553, which reflected an increase of 3,508 (+4.94%) from the 71,045 counted in the 2010 census.

. Her first big assignment was covering an "ugliest couch contest" and interviewing the winner. In 2001, Sullivan, Angela Rucker, and Jason Laughlin earned an award from the New Jersey Press Association for their article on teenage alcohol use, "Many equate booze with fun". Sullivan moved to the ''

Federal Times ''Federal Times'' is a source of information for senior U.S. government managers on trends and issues facing them in their job performance and career. The magazine is published six times per year. ''Federal Times'' is part of Sightline Media Grou ...

'' in 2003, and then to '' Congressional Quarterly'' in 2005 where she covered the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

. Sullivan joined the Associated Press in 2007 to work in their Washington bureau. She became an expert on homegrown terrorism and domestic radicalization while covering counter-terrorism. Sullivan, together with Matt Apuzzo,

Adam Goldman Adam Goldman is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist. He received the award for covering the New York Police Department's spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities and for his coverage of Russian meddli ...

, and Chris Hawley, wrote a series of investigative reports on the

New York Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

's (NYPD) work under the guidance of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

to spy on the daily life of Muslims in the New York metropolitan area for years after the

September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. The series earned them the 2012

, the 2012 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School of Government, the 2012 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the 2011 George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting, and the Edgar A. Poe Award from the White House Correspondents' Association. The fallout from the series led to an unsuccessful lawsuit against the NYPD brought by the

State of New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware Ri ...

, and the disbanding of the surveillance program in 2014. Sullivan joined ''The New York Times'' in 2017 as an early-morning breaking news reporter in their Washington, D.C., bureau.

Personal life

Sullivan and her husband James live with their daughter Celia in the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood in Washington.

References

External links

"Many equate booze with fun"
, 2001 award winner for Freshest Treatment of a Tired Topic
2012 Pulitzer Prize winning articles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Eileen 1977 births American newspaper writers Living people Journalists from Alexandria, Virginia Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners Villanova University alumni American women journalists George Polk Award recipients 21st-century American women