American journalist (born 1971)
Sacha Pfeiffer (born September 7, 1971) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and radio host. In November 2018, she joined NPR as an investigations correspondent.[2]
Pfeiffer is known for her work with the Spotlight team run by The Boston Globe.[3] She was a member of the group of reporters whose work in exposing the Roman Catholic church's cover-up of clergy sex abuse earned the newspaper the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.[4]
Personal life and career
Pfeiffer was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Janet (née Preskenis) and Richard Pfeiffer.[5] She has a younger sister, Sonya, and a younger brother, Seth. Her father, a former state senator, was the city attorney for Columbus, Ohio, and her mother is a retired teacher. Her mother is of Lithuanian descent. Her grandmother was Alice Preskenis, a devout Catholic[6] and a lifelong resident of South Boston who spent 40 years working at Pober's Clothing Store[7] and specialized in dressing children.[8] Her uncle was Ken Preskenis, a well-known figure in South Boston through his involvement in community outreach.[9] Pfeiffer graduated from Bishop Watterson High School.[10]
She left Ohio for college, moving to Boston. She graduated with a B.A. in liberal studies with a double major in English and history and M.A. from Boston University.[11] In 2005, she was named a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.[12] She started her journalism career at the Dedham Times in Dedham, Massachusetts.[13] Pfeiffer originally joined The Boston Globe as a reporter in 1995, left in 2008 to work for WBUR-FM in Boston and NPR, returning to The Boston Globe in 2014.[14] During her nearly seven years in public radio, Pfeiffer was a local host of All Things Considered and Radio Boston at WBUR, as well as a guest host of NPR's nationally syndicated On Point and Here & Now.[15][16] Her on-air work received a National Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcast reporting, as well as numerous other awards.[17]
Pfeiffer wrote at The Boston Globe about wealth, philanthropy, and nonprofits[18] and has also covered travel,[19] legal affairs, and the Massachusetts state courts.
She volunteers as an English-as-second-language teacher.[20]
After the Spotlight team published its work, the team created a book about the events. Pfeiffer is a co-author of Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church.[21]
In November 2018, she joined NPR as an investigations correspondent[2] and an occasional guest host for some of NPR's national shows.[22]
