Mary Pat Flaherty (born 1955) is an American journalist who specializes in investigative and long-range stories. She has won numerous national awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting. Formerly of the '' Pittsburgh Press'', she has worked for the '' Washington Post'' since 1993.

Biography

Flaherty was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 7, 1955, to Patrick and Mary Lydon Flaherty. She attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, receiving a B.S. in journalism in 1977. She worked for the ''Pittsburgh Press'' as an intern in 1975. After graduating she became a reporter at the paper, and later an editor. In 1986, she and

Andrew Schneider Andrew Schneider is an American screenwriter and television producer, whose credits include writing for ''The Sopranos'', ''Northern Exposure'', ''The Incredible Hulk'' and ''Alien Nation''. He frequently co-writes episodes with his wife, Diane ...

won the Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting for a series titled "The Challenge of a Miracle: Selling the Gift." Flaherty and Schneider began publishing the 13-article series in November 1985 after 10 months of investigation into the United States's kidney transplant system and its abuse by wealthy foreign nationals, who bypassed the long wait lists. She collaborated with Schneider again on a 1991 series on

asset seizure Asset forfeiture or asset seizure is a form of confiscation of assets by the authorities. In the United States, it is a type of criminal-justice financial obligation. It typically applies to the alleged proceeds or instruments of crime. This ap ...

and forfeiture titled ''Presumed Guilty: The Law's Victims in the War on Drugs''. In 1993 she went to work for the ''Washington Post'' as an investigative projects editor, returning to investigative reporting in 2000. She was a finalist for the 1995

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 ...

with Keith A. Harriston for a series of articles on the hiring practices of the Washington D.C. Police Department. In 2001 Flaherty, along with Joe Stephens, Deborah Nelson, Karen DeYoung, John Pomfret,

Sharon LaFraniere Sharon Veronica LaFraniere (born June 15, 1955) is an American journalist at ''The New York Times''. Early life LaFraniere was born in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was a car salesman, her mother was a homemaker. In 1973, she graduated from Th ...

and Doug Struck, wrote a six-part ''Washington Post'' investigative series titled "The Body Hunters," on American drug companies conducting tests in Third World countries. The series won the investigative reporting award from the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

and the Malcolm Forbes Award for international business reporting from the Overseas Press Club of America. Other notable stories Flaherty has worked on include a 2001 report on faulty testing of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Marine helicopter and a 2013 exposé of massive losses from fraud and embezzlements at nonprofit organizations. In 2014 she was inducted into the Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement. She has also won

George Polk Awards The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...

and SDX national awards.

Awards

* 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting, with Andrew Schneider * Golden Quill Award, Western Pennsylvania Newspaper Association * Keystone Press Newspaper Publishers' Association * George Polk Memorial Award, Long Island University, NY, 1992 *

Sigma Delta Chi Award The Sigma Delta Chi Awards are presented annually by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) (formerly Sigma Delta Chi) for excellence in journalism. The SPJ states the purpose of the award is to promote "the free flow of information vital ...

, 1992 * Series Reporting Award, Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, 1995 * Finalist, 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, with Keith A. Harriston * Investigative Reporting Award, Society of Professional Journalists, 2001 * Malcolm Forbes Award, Overseas Press Club, 2001

References

External links

Mary Pat Flaherty at the ''Washington Post''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flaherty, Mary Pat 1955 births American newspaper journalists Journalists from Pennsylvania Pulitzer Prize winners for journalism George Polk Award recipients Medill School of Journalism alumni The Washington Post people Writers from Pittsburgh 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American women writers Living people Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting winners