Alumni Spring Awards 2007

The Columbia Journalism School Alumni Awards represent recognition of excellence by one’s professional peers. The awards are given to alumni of the Graduate School of Journalism for a distinguished journalism career in any medium, for an outstanding single accomplishment in journalism, for notable contributions to journalism education, or for achievement in related fields. The awards are given annually at the Alumni Association’s Spring meeting.

Robert Giles '56, is curator of Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism and formerly a senior vice president of The Freedom Forum. Giles also served for 11 years as executive editor, and, later, editor and publisher of The Detroit News. From 1977 to 1986 he was executive editor, then editor, of the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle and Times-Union. Two newspapers won Pulitzer Prizes under Giles' editorship. The Beacon Journal received the award in 1971, when he was managing editor, for coverage of the shootings at Kent State University. The Detroit News won in 1994, when Giles was editor, for the newspaper's disclosures of a scandal in the Michigan House Fiscal Agency. He was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association.

Robert Merry '72, is President and Publisher of Congressional Quarterly Inc., the Washington-based publishing company that specializes in news and information on Congress, politics and public policy. He is the author of "Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop -- Guardians of the American Century", published by Viking in 1996.

Mr. Merry began his career at the Denver Post, where he covered the Colorado Senate and local politics. After two years at the Post, he became a national political correspondent for the now-defunct National Observer, a Dow Jones newspaper. When it folded in 1977, Mr. Merry moved to the Washington bureau of The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Merry joined CQ in 1987 as Managing Editor and in 1990 was promoted to Executive Editor. He became President and Publisher in January 1997. He also sits on the boards of directors of CQ and its parent company, Times Publishing Co. of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Andrew Meldrum '77, a regular contributor to The Guardian (UK), is considered one of America’s most authoritative and experienced journalists in southern Africa. When Rhodesia's white minority rule ended and majority-ruled Zimbabwe was born in 1980, Meldrum went to chronicle the new country's provision of basic rights to the black majority, especially in education and health care. Zimbabwe's political and economic developments kept it a continually compelling story and Meldrum remained in the country, writing for British newspapers, The Guardian, and The Economist. Since 2000 he wrote about Zimbabwe's crisis, particularly highlighting human rights abuses and oppression of the press. In May 2002, Meldrum was briefly jailed and put on trial for allegedly "publishing a falsehood". He was acquitted but in May 2003 he was abducted by state agents and illegally expelled from Zimbabwe. He has written a book about his 23 years in Zimbabwe, entitled "Where We Have Hope", published by Atlantic Monthly Press.

Linda Winslow '67, is the executive producer of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. A key member of the NewsHour management team, Winslow's association with Jim Lehrer and Robin MacNeil dates back to her role as producer for the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT). She produced their seminal Watergate coverage in 1973, and also produced PBS's live coverage of the House Judiciary Committee's Presidential Impeachment hearings, which was anchored by Lehrer. Winslow was one of the original producers of the half-hour MacNeil/Lehrer Report from 1975 to 1978. From 1978 to 1983, Winslow was vice president in charge of news and public affairs for WETA-26/Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for PBS coverage of Washington's major news events, as well as for the weekly series Washington Week in Review and The Lawmakers.

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Past Alumni Awards Winners