Journalist and educator John Dinges will receive this year’s Leo C. Lee Award for significant contributions to public radio news.
As head of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s radio curriculum, Dinges revamped the program to emphasize public radio journalism and helped launch the careers of award-winning pubradio journalists “from Wyoming to Washington, D.C.,” according to PRNDI’s award announcement.
John Dinges
Earlier in his career, Dinges was a freelance correspondent in Latin America and contributed to Time, the Washington Post, ABC Radio, the Miami Herald and other news organizations. He became an assistant editor on the foreign desk at the Washington Post and later joined NPR to help bolster its foreign coverage. He was promoted to deputy foreign editor and later ascended to managing editor for NPR News.
“John is tirelessly committed to the craft,” said PRNDI President George Bodarky. “Thanks to John, countless individuals now fully understand the values that underlie public radio journalism and are telling great stories.”
The award is named after its first recipient, Leo C. Lee, founder of Western Public Radio and its San Francisco–based public radio training program.
Dinges will be honored at the annual PRNDI awards banquet June 22 in Cleveland.