Deborah Nelson

Deborah Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who joined the Merrill College faculty in 2006 after five years as the Washington investigations editor for the Los Angeles Times. Before that, she reported for The Washington Post, The Seattle Times and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Nelson co-authored a series at The Seattle Times on widespread abuses in the federal government's tribal housing program that won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. She also served as an editor on Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations into child welfare for The Washington Post and military accidents for the Los Angeles Times.

Since joining Merrill College, she has co-authored articles for Reuters that examined global hunger, pandemics, income inequality, climate change, antibiotic resistance and military housing conditions. The University of Maryland cited that work in awarding her the 2025 Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize. The articles also won national awards, including from the Society of Professional Journalists, National Academies of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, White House Correspondents' Association and National Press Club. 

Her critically acclaimed book, “The War Behind Me” (Basic Books 2008), documents the coverup of U.S. war crimes in Vietnam and profiles the soldiers who tried to stop the atrocities.

Students in her investigative reporting course have produced their own award-winning work for Capital News Service and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism. Their series on police use of force in collaboration with the Associated Press was a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and an investigation into congressional travel won a 2024 IRE Award.

Nelson has a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and a B.S. in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. She also has a Graduate Certificate of Professional Studies in Multimedia Journalism from Merrill College.

Syllabuses

JOUR635/353 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING (Fall 2025)

JOUR281 DIGITAL MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS (Spring 2026)

JOUR479D INVESTIGATIVE METHODS (Spring 2026)

Recent Publications

– “The Starving World: An elaborate global system exists to prevent famine. It’s failing,” Reuters, 2024 

– “The Bat Lands: How bat habitat destruction could spark next pandemic,” Reuters, May 2023

– “Out of Control: America’s losing battle against diabetes,” Reuters, 2021

– “Ambushed at Home,” Reuters, 2018

– “The Uncounted,” Reuters, 2016-2017

– “Water’s Edge,” Reuters, September 2014.

– “The Unequal State of America,” Reuters, December 2012

– “The Cruelest Show on Earth,” Mother Jones magazine, November/December 2011

– “The War Behind Me,” (Basic Books 2008)

Expertise

– Investigative journalism

– Science journalism

– News reporting, writing and editing

– Media and the law: Freedom of information, First Amendment

Awards

Pulitzer Prize, Scripps Howard Foundation, National Academies of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society of Professional Journalists, White House Correspondents' Association, National Press Club, Overseas Press Club, National Headliner, Online News Association, Society of Environmental Journalists, Association of Health Care Journalists, John B. Oakes, Sidney Hillman, Women in Communication, Investigative Reporters and Editors, National Housing, Suburban Newspapers of America and more than two dozen local and regional awards as well as the Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize.

Affiliations

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Fund for Investigative Journalism, Investigative Reporting Workshop

Courses Taught

– Investigative Journalism JOUR635/353

– Media Law and Ethics in the Digital Age JOUR281 (I-Series Course)

– Media Law and Ethics JOUR402

– Media Law JOUR400

– Investigative Journalism in Post-Soviet Europe JOUR698R/479R

– Probing War: Investigative Narratives and American Conflicts (I-Series Course) JOUR289J

– Carnegie Seminar JOUR698N/479N

Curriculum Vitae