Note: This story has been updated with a comment from Silvia Foster-Frau.
A Galesburg native has added journalism’s highest honor to her impressive resume.
Silvia Foster-Frau, a 2010 Galesburg High School graduate, is a member of The Washington Post staff that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of stories examining the rise of the AR-15.
The winners of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were announced from Columbia University Monday afternoon.
The Pulitzers are regarded as the highest honor a U.S.-based journalist or organization can receive.
Foster-Frau tells WGIL, “Winning the Pulitzer alongside my fellow Washington Post journalists is an incredible honor. I hope it draws more attention to the stories we published about the communities impacted by mass shootings and the devastation caused by AR-15 style rifles. I’m so proud of the way the Post told these stories with sensitivity and care, challenging traditional newsroom norms in the hopes of furthering our public service mission.”
Foster-Frau joined The Washington Post in 2021 and currently serves as a national investigative reporter for the newspaper. As part of her investigative mission, Foster-Frau explores how local, state and federal governments serve the country’s diversifying population.
Foster-Frau started her journalism journey as a student columnist at The Register-Mail while still attending GHS.
The Pulitzer is the second major award for Foster-Frau and her colleagues this year. At the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Foster-Frau and three colleagues accepted the 2024 Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability for The Post’s same coverage of AR-15-style rifles in America and the mass shootings.
