Audra D.S. Burch

Audra D.S. Burch is an award-winning National Enterprise Correspondent for The New York Times, where she focuses on race and identity. She was awarded the 2019 Vernon Jarrett Medal for Journalistic Excellence and 2019 ONA Immersive Storytelling prize based on a collection of stories from that beat.

 

Before that, she was senior reporter for The Miami Herald specializing in narrative and investigative journalism. As a member of the I-team, Burch was part of a two-person unit that uncovered systematic abuses in Florida's juvenile justice system. The project, called "Fight Club," was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist. An earlier series explored how more than 500 children died of abuse or neglect after falling through Florida’s child welfare safety net. The series, "Innocents Lost," won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. Previously, Burch crafted a specialty beat centered on race and culture in the American South. She launched her career at the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind., followed by a stint at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. A magna cum laude graduate of Florida A&M University, Burch is the 2011 recipient of the Thelma Thurston Gorham Distinguished Alumnus Award.