Loretta Tofani (February 5, 1953, New York City) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning

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Life

Tofani earned a bachelor’s degree from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a private Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its original campus is located, Fordham is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit un ...

in 1975 and a

master’s degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. She had a Fulbright fellowship to Japan in 1983. In 1982, while a staff writer at ''

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 n ...

'', she wrote a series of articles about a pattern of widespread gang

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

inside a Prince George's County

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jail for which she won a 1983

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 publica ...

. The series was notable for its documentation: Tofani obtained the victims' medical records and interviewed the victims as well as the rapists. The victims were innocent, charged with drunk driving and shop lifting, in jail because they did not have enough money for bond. The jail placed them in the same cellblocks with convicted murderers and armed robbers, who raped them. The jail changed its policies as a result of her story. After nine years at ''The Washington Post'', Tofani in 1987 became a reporter for ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pen ...

,'' serving as the paper's Beijing Bureau Chief from 1992 through 1996. She wrote for the Inquirer for 14 years. She won other national awards at ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', and was a finalist for another Pulitzer Prize. She and her family moved to Utah in 2001. She currently lives in Boise, Idaho. As a free-lancer in 2007, Tofani reported and wrote the newspaper series, "American Imports, Chinese Deaths." The six stories showed that millions of Chinese factory workers were getting fatal diseases and limb amputations while making thousands of products for the U.S. Chinese workers have been paying the real price of America's cheap goods. The series was published in ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' (http://extras.sltrib.com/china/). Tofani reported the series by making five trips to China with small travel grants provided by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Center for Investigative Reporting's Dick Goldensohn Fund.

Awards

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 ...

, 1983, local investigative reporting. * Investigative Reporters and Editors award, 1983 and 2008. * Society of Professional Journalists' award for investigative reporting, 1983 and 2008. *

Michael Kelly Award The Michael Kelly Award is a journalism award sponsored by the Atlantic Media Company Atlantic Media is an American print and online media company owned by David G. Bradley and based in the Watergate in Washington, D.C. It publishes ''The Atlan ...

from the Atlantic Media Company, 2008. * Special citation from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2008. * Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, 2008.

References

External links

Loretta Tofani's blog Winner Pulitzer report: "American imports, Chinese deaths: The human cost of doing business" Oct. 2007
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tofani, Loretta American women journalists Fordham University alumni Living people The Philadelphia Inquirer people Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners 1953 births 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women 21st-century American women