The Washington Post and ProPublica Win ONA’s 2025 Data Investigative Journalism Award
The Washington Post and ProPublica are the winners of the 2025 University of Florida Award in Data Investigative Journalism, presented by the Online News Association (ONA), in the Large Newsroom and Small/Medium Newsroom categories, respectively. The awards were presented on Sept. 11, 2025, at the ONA annual conference in New Orleans.
The Washington Post won for “Indian Boarding Schools,” a revelatory and visually arresting series that harnessed deep, primary-source reporting and novel storytelling to present the fullest public accounting yet of the impact of the U.S. government’s 150-year Native American boarding school program.
The Post documented that 3,104 students died at the schools between 1828 and 1970 — more than three times the number the U.S. Interior Department reported in its own investigation. Children died from disease, from malnutrition and, in some cases, records suggest, as a result of mistreatment or abuse.
ProPublica’s project, “Life of the Mother,” presented a first-of-its-kind analysis of Texas hospital data and revealed a rise in life-threatening complications for women hospitalized with second-trimester pregnancy loss after the state banned abortion, as well as an increase in hospital deaths of pregnant women.
Each organization received a $7,500 prize.
The award, first established in 2014, honors high-impact data journalism that is exceptionally well presented. The award is funded through a gift to the University of Florida from the estate of the late Lorraine Dingman.
The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) also sponsored a data investigative journalism session at this year’s ONA conference. The session included moderator Rick Hirsch, director of UFCJC’s Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, and:
- Caroline Ghisolfi, deputy data editor at the Houston Chronicle. Before coming to Houston, Caroline was at the Austin American-Statesman, where she was part of the team selected as a Pulitzer finalist in public service. The Chronicle’s work won first prize in ONA’s in Excellence in Science Reporting category, and was a finalist for the UF Data and Investigative award.
- Garrett Shanley, a UFCJC senior, where his reporting on higher education and former UF president Ben Sasse has earned him multiple honors, including Journalist of the Year, the Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts and the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism from the NYU Ethics and Journalism Initiative.
- Robin McDowell, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter and co-winner of the 2025 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability. During her nearly two decades with the AP in Southeast Asia, she and reporting partner Margie Mason exposed slavery in the seafood industry, resulting in more than 2,000 men being freed, as well as labor abuses on palm oil plantations. Back in the U.S., they exposed massive companies profiting from American prison labor.
Category: Alumni News, College News, Student News
Tagged: Garrett Shanley Online News Association UF Investigative Data Journalism Award ProPublica Rick Hirsch Washington Post
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