Galesburg native wins 2024 Pulitzer Prize as part of Washington Post team

A Galesburg native recently received the highest honor in American journalism.

Silvia Foster-Frau , a 2010 graduate of Galesburg High School, is a national investigative reporter with the Washington Post. She is a member of a team whose series of stories examining the rise of AR-15-style rifles and mass shootings in the United States won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting .

“I want to thank the people affected by the mass shootings who were quoted, and some who were not,” Foster-Frau said in a recent social media post. “They retold the most vulnerable and horrible moment of their lives in the hopes that, through us, it would make a difference.”

Foster-Frau has worked at the Washington Post since 2021. While in high school, she wrote for The Register-Mail in Galesburg as a student columnist.

The series also won a 2024 Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability . Foster-Frau and three Washington Post colleagues accepted that award last month at the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Read the story: Links to Silvia Foster-Frau's award-winning work with the Washington Post

The winners of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday from Columbia University. Named for 19th- and early 20th-century newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the awards are considered the highest honor a U.S.-based journalist or news outlet can receive.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Galesburg native wins 2024 Pulitzer Prize as part of Washington Post team