Previously, she was an enterprise editor at the Chicago Tribune, where she managed a team of reporters working on in-depth news features and coached writers throughout the newsroom. During a 10-year stint as a special projects reporter at the newspaper, she won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting as the lead writer of a four-part series on problems with air travel. Kiernan also worked as an urban affairs team editor and reporter, directing coverage of issues such as housing and immigration and specializing in writing about social policy, including welfare reform, poverty and juvenile justice. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia, a master’s at Medill, and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard. Contact: l-kiernan@northwestern.edu, @louisekiernan