A science writer covering climate change, its impacts and related politics. An editor who has led his publication to national renown as the LGBTQ community’s “newspaper of record.” An investigative journalist whose work – individually and with collaborators — has exposed political corruption, improper conduct among Ohio prosecutors, and U.S. workers dying on the job for lack of shade and water.
These are the 2026 Hall of Fame honorees chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. The honorees will be feted at the chapter’s Dateline Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 9, at the National Press Club. SPJ DC also will announce the winners of its 2026 Dateline Awards competition, honoring the best journalism produced in the District of Columbia and metropolitan Maryland and Virginia.
The Hall of Fame honorees include:
Seth Borenstein, a Washington-based national science writer for The Associated Press. At the AP since 2006, he mainly covers climate change – plus the environment, weather, physics, astronomy and hurricanes – providing credible, fact-based information at a time when established science often has come under attack. Borenstein also teaches journalism at New York University’s campus in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Naff, editor and co-owner of the Washington Blade, published since 1969 and now the nation’s oldest LGBTQ news publication. He is a co-founder and owner of Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia, which also publishes the Los Angeles Blade. Naff is the author of “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality – And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away” (2023).
Cheryl W. Thompson, an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio, an associate professor of journalism at George Washington University, and author of “Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen” (2026). She served as reporting coach for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast “No Compromise” about hardline gun rights advocates. Earlier, during more than 20 years with The Washington Post, she was part of teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for National Reporting.
At the dinner, the DC Chapter also will present its Distinguished Service Award to a journalist whose work and or actions have made a positive difference on our craft and on society.
The 2026 honoree is Karen Attiah, a prize-winning journalist whose work examines the intersections of race, culture, gender, media and international affairs. Attiah, the founding Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post, was fired last September for allegedly violating the paper’s social media policies. Attiah contested that claim, writing in her Substack column that “[s]peaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns” prompted her dismissal. On Substack, Attiah’s “Golden Hour” explores “writing, fighting and beauty in dark times.”
The dinner’s master of ceremonies will be Kojo Nnamdi, host of WAMU radio’s weekly “Politics Hour.”
Tickets will be available soon. Check for the latest information at the chapter’s website: SPJDC.org