Sharon Veronica LaFraniere (born June 15, 1955) is an American journalist at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Early life

LaFraniere was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Her father was a car salesman, her mother was a homemaker. In 1973, she graduated from The Roeper School in

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

, a private school for gifted children that awarded her an academic scholarship. During high school, she held a variety of jobs, including at a gas station, a pancake house, a grocery store and Kentucky Fried Chicken, where she worked as an assistant manager. While in high school, she lived a year with Nora Barron, a psychiatric social worker at The Roeper School, her husband Guy Barron, and their two children.

Education

In 1977, after she was granted a full academic scholarship, LaFraniere earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in comparative literature, graduating magna cum laude and with honors from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. She earned a Master of Science degree in 1979 in journalism from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

Career

LaFraniere began her journalism career at ''

The Louisville Times ''The Louisville Times'' was a newspaper that was published in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1884 by Walter N. Haldeman, as the afternoon counterpart to ''The Courier-Journal'', the dominant morning newspaper in Louisville and the common ...

''. In 1983, LaFraniere became a reporter for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. At both papers, she won prizes for local reporting. In 1998, LaFraniere became a foreign correspondent based in Moscow for The Washington Post. Her assignments took her into conflict zones in Afghanistan and on at least six occasions, in Chechnya. In 2003, LaFraniere joined ''

'', based in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. Her series on the struggles of women in Africa won the

Michael Kelly Award The Michael Kelly Award is a journalism award sponsored by the Atlantic Media Company. It is given for "the fearless pursuit and expression of truth"; the prize is $25,000 for the winner and $3,000 for the runners-up. It is named for Michael Kell ...

in 2006. She moved to Beijing in 2008 to cover China for ''

'', sharing the 2013 Gerald Loeb Award for International for "China's Secret Fortunes". She joined the newspaper's investigative unit in New York in late 2012. In January 2017, she moved to Washington D.C. to join an investigative team formed to cover the Trump administration. She and her colleagues won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

in 2018 for their investigative reporting on the Trump team's links to Russia. In mid-2020, Ms. LaFraniere shifted to coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic from the Washington bureau. In 2021, she and her colleagues were Pulitzer Prize finalists for their 2020 coverage of the Trump administration's failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also a member of the team that won the prize for breaking news from The Association for Business Journalists for their coverage of the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.

Awards

* 1999 Overseas Press Club Award for business reporting. * 2006

. * 2013 Gerald Loeb Award for International for "China's Secret Fortunes". * 2018

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

. *2021, finalist, Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting *2021, winner, The Association for Business Journalists, for breaking news on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Personal life

LaFraniere's husband is

Michael Wines Stephen Michael Wines (born June 3, 1951) is an American journalist. He is a national correspondent for ''The New York Times'' at present. Wines was previously the Times bureau chief in China, Johannesburg and Moscow.

, who is also a reporter for ''The New York Times''. They have three grown children.

References

External links

*
Sharon LaFraniere at muckrack.com

Sharon LaFraniere at linkedin.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafraniere, Sharon 1955 births Living people Writers from Detroit Brown University alumni Northwestern University alumni Journalists from Michigan The Washington Post people The New York Times writers American women journalists 20th-century American journalists Gerald Loeb Award winners International 20th-century American women 21st-century American women