Daniel L. Golden (born 1957) is an American journalist, working as a senior editor and reporter for ProPublica.^[1] He was previously senior editor at Conde Nast's now-defunct Portfolio magazine,^[2] and a managing editor for Bloomberg News.^[3][4]

Early life and education

Born in Toledo, Ohio,^[5] Golden grew up in an academic family, as his parents Morris and Hilda Golden were both professors who would later teach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[6] Daniel Golden graduated from Harvard College in 1978 with a B.A.^[6]

Journalism career

From 1978 to 1981, Golden was a reporter for the Springfield Daily News in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[5] In 1981, Golden first joined The Boston Globe as a regional reporter, being promoted to general assignment and investigative reporter in 1982. From 1986 to 1993, Golden wrote for the Globe's Sunday "Focus" section and weekly magazine.^[5] After a year as an investigative reporter, Golden was a special projects reporter for the Globe from 1994 until leaving in 1998.^[5]

Golden joined The Wall Street Journal as a reporter in 1999. Beginning in 2000, Golden was the Boston deputy bureau chief for the Journal.^[5]

As Deputy Bureau Chief at the Boston bureau of The Wall Street Journal he received the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 2004 for a series of articles on admissions preferences in elite American universities, specifically relating to the enormous advantages enjoyed by more affluent white students,^[7] and the use of development cases (admissions based on potential donations).^[8] He earned the 2011 Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting for his article "Education Inc.".^[9] Golden is also a three time recipient of the George Polk Award.^[10]

A series of articles that Golden edited about Corporate Tax Inversions won Bloomberg's first Pulitzer Prize in 2015.^[11] Golden also co-edited a ProPublica series on Latin American asylum-seekers caught between the U.S. government and the MS-13 gang, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. ^[12]

Books

• The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates, Three Rivers Press, 2007.^[13][14]
• Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America's Universities, Henry Holt and Co., 2017.^[15]
• The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.^[16] – with Renee Dudley