UFCJC alumna named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting

ProPublica reporter Debbie Cenziper, B.S. Journalism 1992, was named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for a series of reports exposing how the Food and Drug Administration allowed the import of generic drugs from foreign factories that violated safety standards – with potentially lethal consequences for unsuspecting Americans.

Cenziper along with ProPublica reporters Megan Rose and Brandon Roberts produced an investigative series from June through December 2025. The series articles included Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs, Fighting for Breath: How the FDA’s Lax Generic Drug Rules Put Her Life at Risk, Is Your Medication Made in a Contaminated Factory? The FDA Won’t Tell You, Rx Inspector: Look Up Where Your Prescription Drugs Were Made, The FDA Often Doesn’t Test Generic Drugs for Quality Concerns, so ProPublica Did, A Giant Indian Drugmaker Failed to Fix Safety Breaches. The FDA Let it Off the Hook Again and Again and Senators Propose Sweeping Changes to Generic Drug Oversight.

While at the Miami Herald, Cenziper received a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 in Explanatory Writing for her reporting exposing corruption and waste in Miami-Dade County’s public housing agency. She was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 for a series of stores on breakdowns in the nation’s hurricane forecasting system.

Before joining ProPublica in 2022, she was an investigative reporter for The Washington Post for more than a decade. She is also a professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Since 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes have are the highest national honor in American journalism, literature, drama and musical composition. Administered by Columbia University, they celebrate impactful, innovative, and courageous work, particularly in public service journalism, and honor distinguished American authors, playwrights, and composers.

Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged: Debbie Cenziper Journalism ProPublica Pulitzer Prize
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