TheDart Center for Journalism and Trauma was a resource center andthink tank for journalists who cover violence, conflict and tragedy around the world. It operated from 1999-2009 at the University of Washington and was a project of theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City from 2009-2025.^[1] The Dart Center was sunset by Columbia Journalism School in the summer of 2025. Its mission was adopted by theGlobal Center for Journalism and Trauma, an independent nonprofit unaffiliated with Columbia.^[2]

The Dart Center's mission was to improve the quality of journalism on traumatic events, while also raising awareness in newsrooms of the impact such coverage has on the journalists telling the stories.^[3][4] The Dart Center also operated Dart Centre Europe, based in London; Dart Centre Asia Pacific, based in Melbourne; and a research node at theUniversity of Tulsa.

The Dart Center conducted seminars, training and support programs for journalists covering theattacks of September 11, 2001,Hurricane Katrina, theBoxing Day tsunami, theTroubles in Northern Ireland, theIraq War and theVirginia Tech shootings, among other events.^[5][6][7][8] The Dart Center's longtime director was the American journalistBruce Shapiro.

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma was founded at theUniversity of Washington in 1999 to nurture innovation in ethical reporting on victims of violence and tragedy. Among its founders were Roger Simpson, a professor of communication at UW and the center's director until 2006; Shapiro, the center's executive director from 2006-2025; andFrank Ochberg, a psychiatrist and authority onpost traumatic stress disorder. It was named for its principal funder, the Dart Foundation. The Dart Center re-located toColumbia University in the spring of 2009.^[9]

Among the Dart Center's programs were the annualDart Center Awards for Excellence in Reporting on Trauma (given annually since 1994) and the fellowship program,^[10] called after one of its foundersFrank Ochberg which is aimed at mid career journalists who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and improve coverage of violence, conflict and tragedy, among whom six to ten journalists are selected every year to attend an intensive weeklong seminar program, including discussions with journalist colleagues, and the annual conference of theInternational Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.^[11] As of July 2025, more than 250 journalists had been selected forDart Center Ochberg Fellowship.^[12]

The Dart Center also encouraged and led research on the psychological impact of reporting traumatic events on journalists, and encouraged the development of training and support programs at leading news organizations.^[13] Its affiliate Dart Centre in Europe developed programs for the BBC and other news organizations.^[14] Dart Centre Asia Pacific worked actively with journalists in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Cambodia and elsewhere in the region, and pioneering newsroom peer support programs.^[15]

• Danieli, Yael.Sharing the Front Line and the Back Hills: International Protectors and Providers : Peacekeepers, Humanitarian Aid Workers and the Media in the Midst of Crisis. Baywood Publishing Company, 2001.ISBN 978-0-89503-263-8.
• Feinstein, Anthony.Journalists Under Fire: The Psychological Hazards of Covering War. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.ISBN 978-0-8018-8441-2.
• Hight, Joe and Frank Smyth.Tragedies and Journalists, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, 2003.
• Newman, E. & Shapiro, B.Helping Journalists Who Cover Humanitarian Crisis, In G. Reyes (ed.). International Disaster Psychology, Vol. IV, Westport, CT:Praeger Publications, 2007.ISBN 978-0-275-98315-4.
• Newman, E., R. Simpson and Handschuh, David,"Trauma Exposure and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Photojournalists."News Photographer 58(1): 4–13, 2003;Visual Communication Quarterly (Routledge), 10(1) 4–13, January 2003,ISSN 1555-1393.
• Simpson, Roger and William Cote.Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims of Trauma. Columbia University Press, 2006.ISBN 978-0-231-13393-7.
• Simpson, Roger and Boggs, James, "An Exploratory Study of Traumatic Stress Among Newspaper Journalists",Journalism and Communication Monographs,AEJMC, Spring 1999.

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