UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The executive editor of one of the top national newspapers, who has been involved with an array of Pulitzer Prize-winning work, is set to present the Oweida Lecture in Journalism Ethics at 7 p.m. March 21 in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Martin “Marty” Baron became executive editor of The Washington Post on Jan. 2, 2013. He oversees The Post’s print and digital news operations and a staff of about 700 journalists.
The Post won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for a groundbreaking project that chronicled every killing by a police officer the year before. In 2015, The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of security lapses in the Secret Service. The Post received two Pulitzer Prizes in 2014, with one coming in the category of public service for revelations of secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, and the other for explanatory journalism about food stamps in America.
Previously, Baron had been editor of The Boston Globe for 11 and a half years. During his time there, The Globe won six Pulitzers, including the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 for its investigation into a pattern of concealing clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. That work was the basis for the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” in 2016.
Prior to The Globe, Baron held top editing positions at The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Miami Herald. Under his leadership, The Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001.
A two-time editor of the year, Baron earned the honor from Editor & Publisher magazine in 2001 and the National Press Foundation in 2004.
Born in 1954 and in Tampa, Florida, Baron graduated from Lehigh University in 1976 with both BA and MBA degrees.
The Dr. N.N. Oweida Lecture in Journalism Ethics is supported by an endowment from Margaret L. Oweida in memory of her late husband, a surgeon from New Kensington, Pennsylvania.