The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School is proud to announce the recipients of the 2024–2025 David Nyhan Prizes for Public Policy Journalism. These awards celebrate journalists whose compelling reporting elevates public understanding of policy, politics, and the impact of government on people’s lives—especially those often left unheard by the halls of power.
Michael Harriot Named Winner of the David Nyhan Prize for Public Policy Journalism
The David Nyhan Prize for Public Policy Journalism goes to Michael Harriot, an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, poet, and public historian. Harriot has long stood at the forefront of incisive, unflinching journalism that unpacks the complexities of race, power, and policy in America. From his early reporting at Ebony to his work at The Root and The Guardian, and most recently as a columnist at TheGrio, Harriot has consistently illuminated the intersections of race and American democracy.
His most recent book, the New York Times bestseller Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America, called an “authoritative, essential work of U.S. history” by Kirkus reviews, is required reading in over ten universities. His work has graced the pages of The Washington Post, Time, The Atlantic, and beyond. In 2022, he co-created the Webby Award-winning podcast Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History with Pharrell Williams, offering a compelling reexamination of America’s past through lesser-told stories of Black history.
An Emmy nominee and 2019 fellow at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Harriot has also been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the New York Association of Black Journalists, and the American Library Association. After spending his career working in Black media, in 2025 Harriot founded ContrabandCamp, a digital collective bringing together America’s most celebrated journalists, artists and scholars to speak truth to power.
Through relentless reporting, sharp analysis, his signature wit and style, and a deep commitment to justice, Michael Harriot exemplifies the principles of journalism the Nyhan Prize seeks to honor.
Rose Conlon Named Inaugural Winner of the David Nyhan Emerging Talent Journalism Prize
This year marks the introduction of a new award category: the David Nyhan Emerging Talent Journalism Prize. David Nyhan was passionate about mentoring and championing young writers, and was deeply encouraging of the next generation of reporters in his newsroom. It is in this spirit that we inaugurate this new prize to highlight and encourage early-career journalists whose work shows great promise in the areas that the Nyhan Prizes seek to honor.
Rose Conlon of KMUW and the Kansas News Service, has been selected by the judging committee as the Emerging Talent prize’s inaugural recipient.
A Wichita-based public radio reporter, Conlon brings a fearless and deeply empathetic lens to some of the country’s most contested policy issues—particularly women’s health, reproductive rights, and rural health care access. Her reporting has shed critical light on the rising incidence of pregnancy-associated domestic violence in Kansas, and exposed dangerous gaps in nursing home oversight, holding both corporations and public decision-makers to account.
Her reporting reflects a commitment to public interest storytelling that gets beyond headlines. Conlon’s work is frequently featured on NPR, and she is part of a new partnership between NPR and Religion News Service to provide in-depth coverage of faith and spirituality..
A native of Washington state and graduate of Scripps College, Conlon got her start as a producer for American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report, where she helped shape the show’s coverage of wealth and poverty, artificial intelligence, and the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Conlon’s work demonstrates the rigor and compassion that David Nyhan looked to foster in up-and-coming reporters, and which the Nyhan Prizes aim to uplift.
About the Prize
Named in honor of the late David Nyhan—respected Boston Globe columnist and tireless champion of the public good—the Nyhan Prizes honor journalists who go beyond the horserace and power plays of political reporting. These awards recognize journalists who uncover what makes our democracy tick: who pulls the levers, who bears the consequences, and how government can better serve the people at its heart. Both the Nyhan Prize for Public Policy Journalism and the new Emerging Talent prize honor the recipient’s broad body of work across their career. Nominations are accepted from newsrooms, journalists, and the general public.
Judging Committee
The Nyhan Prize winners were selected by a panel of judges overseen by Shorenstein Center Director of Communications and Strategy Liz Schwartz. The 2024-2025 judges were:
- Shawn Donnan, 2023 Nyhan Prize winner and senior writer for Economics at Bloomberg News
- Nick Nyhan, Managing Partner at Upside Analytics and son of David Nyhan
- Thomas Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at Harvard Kennedy School
- Cynthia Tucker, 2012 Nyhan Prize winner, syndicated columnist, and Journalist in Residence at the University of Southern Alabama
Michael Harriot and Rose Conlon will be celebrated in a virtual discussion event on May 15th moderated by 2012 Nyhan Prize winner and 2024 judge Cynthia Tucker.
Learn more and register for the virtual event.
