Dana Priest to Deliver 2014 Commencement Address
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post investigative reporter will speak at NCS’s 114th graduation.
Washington Post investigative reporter Dana Priest will deliver the address at NCS’s 114th Commencement ceremony, to be held in Washington National Cathedral on June 7, 2014.
Priest has spent the majority of her 28-year career at the Post focusing on national security, military operations and the U.S. intelligence agencies. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and three-time finalist, Priest uncovered secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe and deplorable conditions for veterans at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. In 2010 her project, “Top Secret America,” covered the buildup in top-secret intelligence organizations in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A unique searchable database of top secret sites was part of that investigation, which was expanded and published as a book and a “Frontline” documentary released in September 2011. Her first book, “The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military,” (Norton, 2003) was a finalist for the Pulitzer and is still widely used in military academies. Priest is an alumna of UC Santa Cruz.
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Priest has spent the majority of her 28-year career at the Post focusing on national security, military operations and the U.S. intelligence agencies. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and three-time finalist, Priest uncovered secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe and deplorable conditions for veterans at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. In 2010 her project, “Top Secret America,” covered the buildup in top-secret intelligence organizations in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A unique searchable database of top secret sites was part of that investigation, which was expanded and published as a book and a “Frontline” documentary released in September 2011. Her first book, “The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military,” (Norton, 2003) was a finalist for the Pulitzer and is still widely used in military academies. Priest is an alumna of UC Santa Cruz.
Earlier this year, Priest accepted the Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism; her work there will begin next fall. Priest plans to continue with some investigative work for the Washington Post and will enlist a small team of students to help in research and reporting.
This new appointment is a natural extension of Priest’s commitment to sharing her knowledge with young people. In addition to mentoring many young journalists in the Post newsroom, she has been generous in speaking with students at NCS. She discussed “Top Secret America” with students of the “Politics in America” course, appeared with Anne Hull at NCS’s Writers Day to discuss the reporting process, and most recently, interviewed an expert about the situation in Nigeria.
“Dana presents an outstanding role model for our students,” said Head of School Kathleen O’Neill Jamieson. “Her life’s work exemplifies our school’s core values of excellence, service, courage, and conscience. We’re delighted that she will be teaching the next generation of journalists, because the world needs reporters like her, willing to tackle the most complex of subjects to bring injustices to light.”
Ms. Priest, her husband Bill Goodfellow, and their two children live in Washington, DC; their daughter Haley graduates from NCS this year as a member of the Class of 2014.
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Dana Priest.
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