CNN is honoring 10 top public service professionals for their innovations that have improved American lives.
The honor is CNN’s Public Service Award, which recognizes “greater contributions than previously imagined, particularly for the role of the mainstream media in tackling difficult challenges.”
CNN will issue the awards Wednesday, May 4.
Categories this year include:
Profile of the Year
Tom Colicchio of Craft, an online food news site, is receiving the award for Craft’s redesigned website.
Vice President and Managing Editor of Reuters, Nancy Gibbs, is honored for advising young journalists and creating the indispensable Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s Digital News Report, which changes how journalists think about using technology for storytelling.
Anna Belknap, global co-chair for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, is being recognized for founding the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s ‘Be The Change’ challenge that seeks to improve the world through digital action.
Innovative Project
Robert Freiberg, of the City Year AmeriCorps program, is being recognized for inspiring young professionals with his “Working #Lights” social media campaign to end violence against women in the aftermath of the Zadie Smith essay about rape being one of the best books of the year.
The Lincoln Sewer Masterplan, created by Phil Singer and David Liu, is being recognized for rethinking how the government would manage a national “super sewer” network in New York City.
Aspen Institute Executive Director Walter Isaacson is being honored for supporting civics education by introducing the “Boys of America” initiative.
Mark Kennedy, of the United States Fund for UNICEF, is being recognized for his work in creating a database that tracks the global sanitation crisis.
Reporting, Editing and Photography
Gary Landers for his stories on domestic violence and coverage of the West Coast clean-up after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Marc Ilesio, who has been at the Associated Press for five years, is being recognized for work on the press accreditation story, special edition and helping the AP cover the 111th Congress.
In the field of photojournalism, Clark Wharton and David Goldman are being recognized for their photo of Michael Brown lying dead in the street after he was killed by Ferguson police on Aug. 9, 2014.
Senior Producer Linda Chavez is being recognized for representing WNET in documentary, local, school and education documentaries and online.