Sacha Pfeiffer

Last updated
Sacha Pfeiffer
Born (1971-09-07) September 7, 1971 (age 52)
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater Boston University (BA, MA)
Occupation(s)Public radio reporter/host, former newspaper reporter
SpouseHansi Kalkofen [1]
Parent(s) Richard Pfeiffer
Janet Preskenis
Awards Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
Worth Bingham Prize
Investigative Reporters and Editors Award
Edward R. Murrow Award

Sacha Pfeiffer (born September 7, 1971) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and radio host. In November 2018, she joined NPR as an investigations correspondent. [2]

Contents

Pfeiffer is known for her work with the Spotlight team run by The Boston Globe . [3] Their stories on the Catholic Church's cover-up of clergy sex abuse earned the newspaper the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. [4]

Personal life and career

Pfeiffer was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Janet (née Preskenis) and Richard Pfeiffer. [5] She has a younger sister, Sonya, and a younger brother, Seth. Her father, a former state senator, was the city attorney for Columbus, Ohio, and her mother is a retired teacher. Her mother is of Lithuanian descent. Her grandmother was Alice Preskenis, a devout Catholic [6] and a lifelong resident of South Boston who spent 40 years working at Pober's Clothing Store [7] and specialized in dressing children. [8] Her uncle was Ken Preskenis, a well-known figure in South Boston through his involvement in community outreach. [9] Pfeiffer graduated from Bishop Watterson High School. [10]

She left Ohio for college, moving to Boston. She graduated with a B.A. in liberal studies with a double major in English and history and M.A. from Boston University. [11] In 2005, she was named a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. [12] She started her journalism career at the Dedham Times in Dedham, Massachusetts. [13] Pfeiffer originally joined The Boston Globe as a reporter in 1995, left in 2008 to work for WBUR-FM in Boston and NPR, returning to The Boston Globe in 2014. [14] During her nearly seven years in public radio, Pfeiffer was a local host of All Things Considered and Radio Boston at WBUR, as well as a guest host of NPR's nationally syndicated On Point and Here & Now. [15] [16] Her on-air work received a National Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcast reporting, as well as numerous other awards. [17]

Pfeiffer wrote at The Boston Globe about wealth, philanthropy, and nonprofits [18] and has also covered travel, [19] legal affairs, and the Massachusetts state courts.

She volunteers as an English-as-second-language teacher. [20]

After the Spotlight team published its work, the team created a book about the events. Pfeiffer is a co-author of Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church. [21]

In November 2018, she joined NPR as an investigations correspondent [2] and an occasional guest host for some of NPR's national shows. [22]

Portrayal in media

In the 2015 film Spotlight , Pfeiffer is portrayed by Canadian actress Rachel McAdams. McAdams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Boston Globe</i> American daily newspaper

The Boston Globe, also known locally as the Globe, is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBUR-FM</span> Public radio station in Boston

WBUR-FM is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. Its programming is also known as WBUR News. The station is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed programs, including On Point, Here and Now and Open Source. WBUR previously produced Car Talk, Only a Game, and The Connection. RadioBoston, launched in 2007, is its only purely local show. WBUR's positioning statement is "Boston's NPR News Station".

<i>On Point</i> American public radio news show

On Point is a radio show produced by WBUR-FM in Boston, Massachusetts, and syndicated by American Public Media (APM). The show addresses a wide range of issues from news, politics, arts and culture, health, technology, environmental, and business topics, to many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Montagne</span> American journalist

Renée Montagne is an American radio journalist and was the co-host of National Public Radio's weekday morning news program, Morning Edition, from May 2004 to November 11, 2016. Montagne and Inskeep succeeded longtime host Bob Edwards, initially as interim replacements, and Greene joined the team in 2012. Montagne had served as a correspondent and occasional host since 1989. She usually broadcasts from NPR West in Culver City, California, a Los Angeles suburb.

Jane Clayson Johnson is an American journalist and author who rose to national prominence as co-host of a network morning news program and covered stories for CBS News, ABC News, and WBUR/NPR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston University College of Communication</span> Communications school at Boston University

Boston University College of Communication (COM) is the communication school of Boston University (BU), a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1947, it was the first university in the United States to offer a degree in public relations (PR), and the program sets the standard for PR paths across the country. It houses the University's undergraduate and graduate programs in advertising, film and television, journalism, media science, and public relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Vennochi</span> American newspaper columnist (born 1953)

Joan Elizabeth Vennochi is an American newspaper columnist. She specializes in local and national politics at The Boston Globe. With Stephen A. Kurkjian, Alexander B. Hawes Jr., Nils Bruzelius, and Robert M. Porterfield she won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Baron</span> American journalist; editor of the Washington Post

Martin Baron is an American journalist who was editor of The Washington Post from December 31, 2012 until his retirement on February 28, 2021. He was previously editor of The Boston Globe from 2001 to 2012; during that period, the Globe's coverage of the Boston Catholic sexual abuse scandal earned a Pulitzer Prize.

Thomas E. Ashbrook is an American journalist and radio broadcaster. He was formerly the host of the nationally syndicated, public radio call-in program On Point, from which he was dismissed after an investigation concluded he had created a hostile work environment. Prior to working with On Point, he was a foreign correspondent in Asia, and foreign editor of The Boston Globe. He currently hosts a podcast, Tom Ashbrook—Conversations .

Walter V. Robinson is an American investigative reporter serving as editor-at-large at The Boston Globe, where he has worked as reporter and editor for 34 years. From 2007 to 2014, he was a distinguished professor of journalism at the Northeastern University School of Journalism. Robinson is the Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and a professor of practice at the Northeastern University School of Journalism. He has reported for the Globe from 48 states and more than 30 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Public's Radio</span> Public radio network serving Rhode Island

Rhode Island Public Radio, doing business as The Public's Radio, is the NPR member radio network for the state of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Its studios are in the historic Union Station in downtown Providence. The network airs a format of news and talk from NPR, APM, PRX and other sources, such as Morning Edition, On Point, KERA's Think and All Things Considered, as well as extensive local news coverage.

Michael Rezendes is an American journalist and a member of the global investigative team at Associated Press. He is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative work for The Boston Globe. Since joining the Globe he has covered presidential, state and local politics, and was a weekly essayist, roving national correspondent, city hall bureau chief, and the deputy editor for national news.

The Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal was part of a series of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in the United States that revealed widespread crimes in the American Catholic Church. In early 2002, TheBoston Globe published results of an investigation that led to the criminal prosecutions of five Roman Catholic priests and thrust the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy into the national spotlight. Another accused priest who was involved in the Spotlight scandal also pleaded guilty. The Globe's coverage encouraged other victims to come forward with allegations of abuse, resulting in numerous lawsuits and 249 criminal cases.

<i>Spotlight</i> (film) 2015 film directed by Tom McCarthy

Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer. The film follows The Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative journalist unit in the United States, and its investigation into cases of widespread and systemic child sex abuse in the Boston area by numerous Catholic priests. Although the plot was original, it is loosely based on a series of stories by the Spotlight team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The film features an ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Mary's Church (Dedham, Massachusetts)</span> Church in Massachusetts, United States

St. Mary of the Assumption Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Dedham, Massachusetts, in the Archdiocese of Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Bradlee Jr.</span> American journalist and writer

Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee Jr. is an American journalist and writer. He was a reporter and editor at The Boston Globe for 25 years, including a period when he supervised the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation into sexual abuse by priests in the Boston archdiocese, and is the author of a comprehensive biography of Ted Williams. His book, The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America, about Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and the 2016 United States presidential election was released on October 2, 2018.

Kevin Cullen is an American journalist and author. He was a member of The Boston Globe's 2003 investigative team. The Boston Globe as an institution won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Boston. Cullen is co-author of The New York Times bestsellerWhitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice.

Nancy Barnes is an American journalist and newspaper editor. She is currently the editor of The Boston Globe. She is also a member of the Peabody Awards board of directors, which is presented by the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry A. Walsh</span> American priest

Henry A. Walsh was an American priest of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Elaine Ullian was the president and CEO of Boston Medical Center from 1996 until January 2010, replaced by Kathleen E. Walsh. Before that, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston University Medical Center Hospital and Faulkner Hospital. Ullian is a board member at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

References

  1. ↑ Meet journalist Sacha Pfeiffer, the woman who took down the church and inspired the movie Spotlight accessed 2/24/2023
  2. 1 2 "Sacha Pfeiffer, Cheryl W. Thompson Join Investigations Team; Howard Berkes To Retire". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  3. ↑ "Boston Globe / Spotlight / Abuse in the Catholic Church". www.boston.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  4. ↑ "Timeline of Spotlight report stories". BostonGlobe.com. November 10, 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  5. ↑ Richard Pfeiffer bio Archived 2016-09-30 at the Wayback Machine accessed 11-7-2015
  6. ↑ Alice A. Preskenis accessed 2-24-2023
  7. ↑ "Caught in Southie". Caught in Southie. South Boston Unwrapped. 2012-08-28. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  8. ↑ "Alice Preskenis, 94; kept South Boston in style". Archived from the original on 2016-03-01.
  9. ↑ Team Comes Through for Coach accessed 12-26-2015
  10. ↑ Blundo, Joe. "Columbus native finds herself on the big screen." The Columbus Dispatch 16 Nov. 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2020
  11. ↑ "Special Spotlight Screened for BU Audience | BU Today | Boston University". BU Today. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  12. ↑ "Class of 2005: Sacha Pfeiffer". Knight Fellowships Stanford University. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  13. ↑ "A Dedham Connection at The Oscars". The Dedham Times. February 26, 2016. p. 11.
  14. ↑ "Pulitzer Winning Reporter Joins WBUR". www.BU.edu. Boston University. 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  15. ↑ "Black Lives Matter And The 2016 Election". 2015-08-17. Archived from the original on 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2023-02-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. ↑ "Here & Now". Here & Now. WBUR.org. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  17. ↑ "WBUR takes home two Murrow Awards". myemail.constantcontact.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  18. ↑ "Boston nonprofits pressure McDonald's to end 'McTeacher's Night'". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  19. ↑ Pfeiffer, Sacha (2007-02-04). "There, behind the buildup, open, pristine Outer Banks". Boston.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  20. ↑ "Friends of the Community Learning Center — Meet a Donor". clc.syware.us. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  21. ↑ "Book Discussion on Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church". C-SPAN.org. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  22. ↑ "Sacha Pfeiffer: Correspondent, Investigations", npr.org. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.