Leonard Downie

Leonard Downie is the Weil Family Professor of Journalism with the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He is the former executive editor and vice president of the Washington Post. During his 17-year tenure as executive editor, the Washington Post was awarded 25 Pulitzer Prizes. The Post also received three Pulitzer Gold Medals in Public Service for “a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper through the use of its journalistic resources which, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics and online presentation. Over his 44 years with the Post, Downie started as an investigative reporter, covered local and national news, was a London correspondent, oversaw the Post’s Watergate coverage and, as national, managing and executive editor, the coverage of national elections from 1984-2008. He received his BA, MA and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Ohio State University. He has published six books, teaches investigative reporting and helps direct the annual Cronkite School-based News21 national student investigative reporting project.