Stony Brook University, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Occupation
Investigative Reporter
Employer
The Washington Post
Awards
Two Pulitzer Prizes
Scott Higham is an American investigative journalist and author who documented the corporate and political forces that fueled the opioid epidemic, in addition to conducting other major investigations. He is a five-time
Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the Pulitzer twice with his colleagues at
The Washington Post. He is a member of The Post’s investigative unit and the co-author of two books.
Early life
Born in Queens, New York, Higham grew up on Long Island. He is the son of a New York City homicide detective stationed in the Fort Apache precinct in the South Bronx and an airline secretary and homemaker from Winthrop, Mass. He graduated from
Stony Brook University with a B.A. in history and an M.S. from the
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Higham also earned an A.S. in criminal justice at
Suffolk County Community College.[1]
Career
Higham began his journalism career as the editor of his college newspaper, The Stony Brook Press. He then worked as a news clerk for Newsday and as a stringer and copyboy for The New York Times. After graduating from Columbia, he worked at the Allentown Morning Call, the Miami Herald and The Baltimore Sun.[1]
Higham spent six years examining the opioid epidemic as a lead reporter for The Washington Post. The first series revealed the corporate influences behind the opioid epidemic and was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2020[7] for its “unprecedented insight into America’s deadly opioid epidemic.” A second series on the rise of fentanyl was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2023.[8] The Pulitzer Board called that project an “exhaustive investigation” that exposed “the government’s failure to address the epidemic of addiction.” He won numerous awards with Lenny Bernstein of The Washington Post and
Bill Whitaker, Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower of 60 Minutes for investigations into the causes of the
opioid epidemic.[9]
2020,
Pulitzer Prize, Finalist, Public Service, for using “previously hidden government records and confidential company documents to provide unprecedented insight into America’s deadly opioid epidemic."
2018,
Peabody Award, with the staff of The Washington Post and
CBS News60 Minutes, for "The Whistleblower" the joint investigation into how the Drug Enforcement Administration was hobbled in its attempts to hold Big Pharma accountable in the opioid epidemic."[14]
2018, The Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism,[15] with the staff of The Washington Post and
CBS News60 Minutes, for "The Whistleblower" and "Too Big to Prosecute"
2017,
Polk Award, Medical Reporting, with the staff of The Washington Post, for tracing lax regulation of the distribution of narcotic painkillers by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
2016,
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, with the staff of The Washington Post, for its revelatory initiative in creating and using a national database to illustrate how often and why the police shoot to kill and who the victims are most likely to be.
2002,
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, with
Horwitz and
Cohen of The Washington Post, for a series that exposed the District of Columbia's role in the neglect and death of 229 children placed in protective care between 1993 and 2000, which prompted an overhaul of the city's child welfare system.
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984