Evan Osnos, Stephen Henderson and Jodi Cohen Join the Livingston Awards Judges
Wallace House Center for Journalists welcomes three acclaimed journalists as judges for the Livingston Awards. They join our esteemed regional and national judges tasked with identifying the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under the age of 35.
Joining our national judges are Evan Osnos, staff writer for The New Yorker and Stephen Henderson, founder and executive advisor to BridgeDetroit and host of “American Black Journal” on Detroit Public Television. Henderson served as a regional judge for the Livingston Awards since 2015. The national judges read all final entries and meet to select the Livingston winners in local, national and international reporting, as well as the Richard M. Clurman Award, which honors a senior journalist for on-the-job mentoring.
The national judges includes Raney Aronson-Rath, editor in chief, “Frontline,” PBS; Sally Buzbee, news editor for the United States and Canada, Reuters; Sewell Chan, senior fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy; Matt Murray, executive editor, The Washington Post; Lydia Polgreen, opinion columnist, The New York Times; Bret Stephens, opinion columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher podcast host, Vox Media.
Joining our regional judges is Jodi Cohen, investigative reporter and senior editor at ProPublica. The regional judges, selected for their knowledge of journalism in specific regions around the country, read all qualifying entries and select the finalists in local, national, and international reporting categories. She will serve as regional judge for the Great Lakes states, the position previously held by Henderson.
This regional judging group includes Molly Ball, political reporter and author; Meghna Chakrabarti, host and editor, “On Point,” WBUR; Stella M. Chávez, independent journalist; Adam Ganucheau, executive editor, Deep South Today; David Greene, co-founder, Fearless Media; and Amna Nawaz, co-anchor, “PBS NewsHour.”
Osnos, a writer at The New Yorker since 2008, is co-host of The New Yorker’s Political Scene podcast. He is also a senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of four books, including the “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China,” which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich,” was a New York Times bestseller in 2025. He previously worked as the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he won the Livingston Award in 2006 and was on teams that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and in 2008.
Henderson, who founded BridgeDetroit, a nonprofit news and engagement organization, is also a contributor to “One Detroit” on Detroit Public Television. Previously, he was the editorial page editor and a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, where he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2014. Henderson worked as a reporter, editorial writer and editor at The Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, where he covered the U.S. Supreme Court from 2003 to 2007. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a former editorial page editor of The Michigan Daily.
Cohen joined ProPublica in 2017 after 14 years at the Chicago Tribune. Her investigations have led to changes in state laws and policies and contributed to the release of a teenager from detention. Her work has been recognized with many national honors, including the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism, the Education Writers Association Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize, the Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, the ONA Award for Investigative Data Journalism and the Studs Terkel Award, which recognizes journalists whose careers have been driven by service and connection to their communities. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a former managing editor of The Michigan Daily.
Now Accepting Entries
The Livingston Awards are now accepting entries for work published in 2025. The entry deadline is February 1, 2026.
About the Livingston Awards
Livingston Awards honor journalists under the age of 35 for outstanding achievement in local, national and international reporting across all forms of journalism. The awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and mentors, and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. The Livingston Awards are a program of Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Wallace House Presents event series.