Loretta Tofani

Tofani earned a bachelor's degree from Fordham University in 1975 where she served as editor-in-chief of the university newspaper, The Ram.{{Cite web |title=Loretta Tofani |url=https://pulitzercenter.org/people/loretta-tofani |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Pulitzer Center |language=en}} She earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a Fulbright fellowship to Japan in 1983.{{cite book|last1=Schroth|first1=Raymond A.|title=Fordham: A History and Memoir History. Religious Studies|date=2002|publisher=Loyola Press|isbn=9780829416763|pages=424 pages|edition=Illustrated}} She served as a judge for a number of journalism awards.

In 1982, while a staff writer at The Washington Post, she wrote a series of articles about a pattern of widespread gang rape inside a Prince George's County Maryland jail for which she won a 1982 Sigma Delta Chi Award for outstanding contributions to journalism and research,{{Cite news |last= |date=1983-03-09 |title=Sigma Delta Chi Lists 1982 Award Winners |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/09/us/sigma-delta-chi-lists-1982-award-winners.html |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} and 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. The series was notable for its documentation: Tofani obtained the victims' medical records and interviewed the victims as well as the rapists. The victims were innocent, charged with drunk driving and shop lifting, in jail because they did not have enough money for bond. The jail placed them in the same cellblocks with convicted murderers and armed robbers, who raped them. The jail changed its policies as a result of her story.{{cite book | title = The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award Winning Materials in Journalism, Letters and Arts, Volume 6 | date = 1987 | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | isbn = 9783598301704 | pages = 420 pages | edition = Heinz-Dietrich Fischer}}

After nine years at The Washington Post, Tofani in 1987 became a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, serving as the paper's Beijing Bureau Chief from 1992 through 1996. She wrote for the Inquirer for 14 years. She won other national awards at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and was a finalist for another Pulitzer Prize.

As a free-lancer in 2007, Tofani reported and wrote the newspaper series, "American Imports, Chinese Deaths." The six stories showed that millions of Chinese factory workers were getting fatal diseases and limb amputations while making thousands of products for the U.S. Chinese workers have been paying the real price of America's cheap goods.{{cite news|last1=Loretta|first1=Tofani|title=American imports, Chinese deaths: The human cost of doing business|url=http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/news/ci_7239727|agency=The Salt Lake Tribune|date=Oct 21, 2007}}

The series was published in The Salt Lake Tribune (http://extras.sltrib.com/china/). Tofani reported the series by making five trips to China with small travel grants provided by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Center for Investigative Reporting's Dick Goldensohn Fund.{{cite web|title=Loretta tofani|url=http://www.kellyaward.com/2008/loretta-tofani/|website=The Michael Kelly Award}}

• Sigma Delta Chi Award, Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contributions to journalism and research, 1982.
• Pulitzer Prize, 1983, local investigative reporting.
• Investigative Reporters and Editors award, 1983 and 2008.
• Society of Professional Journalists' award for investigative reporting, 1983 and 2008.
• Michael Kelly Award from the Atlantic Media Company, 2008.
• Special citation from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2008.
• Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, 2008.

In 2001, she and her family moved to Ogden, Utah. She currently lives in Boise, Idaho.

{{reflist}}

• [https://es.gravatar.com/ltofani Loretta Tofani's blog]
• [http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/news/ci_7239727 Winner Pulitzer report: "American imports, Chinese deaths: The human cost of doing business" Oct. 2007]
• {{C-SPAN|1026066}}

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Category:20th-century American women journalists

Category:Fordham University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:The Philadelphia Inquirer people

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners

Category:1953 births

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:21st-century American women