Awards & Honors
Senior Fellow
Jan Goodwin
- 2012 Exceptional Merit in Media Awards (EMMA) "The VA Healthcare System's Dishonorable Conduct"
- 2011 Clarion Awards for "The VA Healthcare System's Dishonorable Conduct"
- 2011 Clarion Awards for "Broken Promises"
- 2010 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for "Broken Promises"
- New York Times Notable Book for "Price of Honor"
- Book of the Year by Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing for the London Sunday Times for "Caught in the Crossfire"
- Recipient of three Amnesty International Media Awards
- Front Page Award for Outstanding Journalism for "War Torn" series
- Clarion Award for Anti-Child Pornography series
- Two Emma Awards for political coverage
- Soros Foundation Media Fellowship award
Where to find Goodwin
on the web
Schuster Senior Fellow and war correspondent Jan Goodwin talked with media about the role of women as suicide bombers and the recent Moscow subway bomb blasts, Tue., March 30, 2010.
(To listen to Jan on WHYS, search and download '03 Mar 10 Are Women the Most Effective Killers?' on BBC Podcasts.)
Jan Goodwin

Books
Reporting and editorial experience
Investigative highlights
Awards and honors
Human Rights Activist
Non-profit experience
Public speaking
Other affiliations
Selected articles
J
Books
Reporting and editorial experience
Investigative highlights
Drew world attention to child soldiers in the Sierra Leone conflict
Exposed the life imprisonment of Nepali women for a stillbirth, miscarriage, or abortion
Goodwin investigated the fact that an estimated two-thirds of Nepal’s female prisoners were jailed for infanticide, a charge that included stillbirths, miscarriages, abortions, and infant abandonment—much of which, she showed, resulted from a lack of reproductive health care: no contraception, gynecological care, obstetrical care, or medical assistance during complicated deliveries. Goodwin’s research showed that such charges were often brought by male relatives in land grabs because women were not allowed to own property if found guilty, which they invariably were. After the articles appeared in On the Issues and The Utne Reader, the subject was discussed in the Nepalese government and elsewhere. Shortly afterward, the long-standing law was dropped.
Investigated restorative justice programs in maximum security prisons
In the 1990s, exposed how Afghan women were treated under the Taliban
Goodwin researched one of the first articles to detail the oppressive lives for Afghan women under the Taliban. Her publications included interviews with leading Talib officials and the mullah who headed the Department of Virtue and Vice, responsible for the dictates that led Afghanistan to be known as a “human rights catastrophe.” Goodwin also interviewed young Talib armed zealots dedicated to memorizing the Q’uran in Arabic, a language they could not understand—and therefore giving them no insight into the rights Islam gives to women. Goodwin’s work revealed the Taliban leadership’s hypocrisy. For instance, although the regime banned female education, the Afghani Taliban ambassador to the U.S. sent his daughter to school abroad. And while the regime punished smoking by public flogging, officials were smoking in every office in the Taliban’s Kabul headquarters.
Awards and honors
A longtime human rights activist and the recipient of three Amnesty International Media Awards, Goodwin has testified before Congress on a number of occasions, and has been an expert witness in political asylum cases. She was one of four journalists featured in an hour-long PBS-TV documentary "Witnesses" on journalists who covered the Afghan war. She served on the White House Cambodia Crisis Committee. Other national honors include a Front Page Award for Outstanding Journalism for her "War Torn" series; a Clarion award for an anti-child pornography series, for which she was honored by the White House, two Emmas for political coverage, a Clarion Award for an investigation into sex abuse in the military, and the poor healthcare female veterans receive, and a second Clarion for an expose on mistreatment of American political asylees. This is the first time a journalist had won two Clarions in the same year. A James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.
Human Rights Activist:
Non-profit experience
Between 1988 and 1992, Goodwin took a hiatus from journalism to start and run Save the Children's Peshawar-based multimillion humanitarian program in war-torn Afghanistan. Funded by USAID, the UN and the EU, its projects included reconstruction of bomb-damaged infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and clinics; transporting humanitarian aid during war; mother and child health programs; and income-generating/microenterpr
Public speaking
Goodwin lectures extensively both in the U.S., and abroad to audiences ranging from Congressional breakfasts, the Foreign Policy Association, the National Press Club, women's and professional organizations, and universities. Her TV appearances include: "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," CBS News, NBC News, CNN, MSNBC, "Leonard Lopate," "Nightline," and Oxygen. She has given many print and radio interviews.
Other affiliations
Goodwin is a member of the Committee to Protect Journalists; the Authors Guild; and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She is a former judge for the National Magazine Awards, the magazine world’s Pulitzer Prizes.
Selected articles
"Broken Promises: Seeking Political Asylum in America," Ladies Home Journal, April 2010.
"The VA Health-Care System's Dishonorable Conduct," Good Housekeeping, March, 2010.
"Marriage Under Fire: Military Couples," Ladies Home Journal, June 2009.
“When the Suicide Bomber Is a Woman,” Marie-Claire Magazine, September, 2007.
“Please Daddy, No," O, The Oprah Magazine, November 2006.
“Too Young to Kill,” O, The Oprah Magazine, July 2005.
“After Violence, the Possibility of Healing,” O, The Oprah Magazine, April 2004.
“Silence = Rape: While the world looks the other way, sexual violence spreads in the Congo,” The Nation, March 8, 2004.
“Rescued from Hell," Marie Claire Magazine, July 2003.
“Babies in Prison,” Marie-Claire Magazine, 2001. [Female prisoners are shackled while giving birth.]
“Heart of Darkness,” Harper’s Bazaar, March 2000. [AIDS funerals in Zambia.]
“Sierra Leone Is No Place To Be Young,” New York Times Magazine, Sunday, February 14, 1999.
“Buried Alive: Afghan Women Under the Taliban,” On The Issues, Summer 1998.
“Prisoners: Loving Babies, Hating Women,” On the Issues, Fall 1996. Excerpted as "In Nepal, There's No Abortion Debate, Just a Life Sentence," Utne Reader, Jan.-Feb. 1997.