Alissa Zhu, a Baltimore Banner investigative journalist who earned a master's degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2023, won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this week for her in-depth reporting on Baltimore's fatal overdose crisis.
Zhu earned the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting along with Banner photojournalist Jessica Gallagher and data specialist Nick Thieme for a multi-part project published in 2024 with support from The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship. Their work shines a light on an epidemic that claimed nearly 6,000 lives in six years across the city, giving Baltimore the distinction of being the nation's overdose capital.
Zhu joined The Banner in June 2022, just days before the nonprofit newsroom launched its website. Her initial year at The Banner would double as the second-year field placement for the Bloomberg School's master of science in public health program in health policy that she was enrolled in at the time.
Zhu was initially hired for coverage related to immigration, she said. "A few months in, our editor in chief Kimi Yoshino approached me and said she was really interested in doing a deep dive on overdoses and wanted to assign me to work with a couple of other reporters," Zhu said. "She said 'I think it's a really critical issue in our community that has not been talked about.' I think she approached me in part because of my background in public health."
That public health background helped inform her reporting approach, Zhu said. Rather than looking at the issue of addiction through a criminal justice or legal lens, she focused on the human stories behind the opioid crisis. Her reporting for the series, conducted over more than two years, reflects interviews with hundreds of people, including health experts and frontline health workers, local officials, family members of individuals struggling with addiction, and people who lost loved ones to fatal overdoses.
The Pulitzer citation recognized Zhu and her colleagues for "a compassionate investigative series that captured the breathtaking dimensions of Baltimore's fentanyl crisis and its disproportionate impact on older Black men, creating a sophisticated statistical model that The Banner shared with other newsrooms."
Zhu, 32, previously worked at the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi, where she wrote about the causes and consequences of fatal prison riots as well as historic immigration raids at chicken processing plants, and at the Springfield News-Leader in her hometown in Missouri, where she covered local government. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
In 2020, Zhu decided to move on from journalism to pursue a career in public health. Seeing the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrants working in Mississippi's poultry industry stoked an interest in health disparities, she said. That interest would lead her to Baltimore and the Bloomberg School—then to an upstart online news venture, and ultimately to journalism's highest honor.
"I really didn't think I would end up back in journalism, but I think The Banner was an exciting opportunity that I couldn't turn down," Zhu said. "And The Banner's editors recognized that this [topic] was something worth investing time and resources in."
Meanwhile, six UC Berkeley alumni were named 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week, specifically around May 8, 2025, by Columbia University. Announced each May, the prizes are considered the country’s most sought-after awards in journalism, arts and letters and have been awarded since 1917.
Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911, left money to Columbia University to launch a journalism school and establish the Pulitzer Prize. An independent Pulitzer Prize Board selects the winners.
This year’s Berkeley-affiliated winners include Parker Yesko and Catherine Winter, Berkeley Journalism alumni, who won for audio reporting on the "In the Dark" podcasts about the 2005 killing in Haditha, Iraq. Greg Winter, another Berkeley Journalism alumnus, was one of the main editors for the New York Times’ coverage of the civil war in Sudan and the U.S. failure in Afghanistan, which also won Pulitzers.
Benjamin Nathans, a History alumnus, won the general nonfiction prize for "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement." This book resulted from more than 20 years of research into K.G.B. case files, unpublished diaries and private correspondence.
At the Houston Chronicle, Sharon Steinmann, an anthropology alumna, and Leah Binkovitz, an art history alumna, won, along with two other colleagues, for distinguished editorial writing for a series on dangerous train crossings that kept readers focused on the people and communities at risk.
These achievements underscore the significant impact and recognition of UC Berkeley's journalism program, which continues to produce influential reporters and storytellers.
As the journalism community celebrates these accomplishments, it also reflects on the vital role of investigative reporting in addressing pressing social issues, such as the overdose crisis in Baltimore and the ongoing conflicts around the globe. The work of these journalists not only informs the public but also sparks essential conversations about justice, health, and accountability.
The Pulitzer Prizes serve as a reminder of the power of storytelling and the importance of shedding light on critical issues that affect communities. As journalists like Zhu and her colleagues push boundaries and explore complex narratives, they contribute to a richer understanding of the world around us, inspiring future generations of reporters to continue the pursuit of truth and justice.
In a time when misinformation can spread rapidly, the commitment to thorough, compassionate reporting is more important than ever. The recognition of these talented journalists highlights the significance of their work and the impact it can have on society.
