In 1997, Nelson won thePulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting[4][5] for her investigative work for the Seattle Times, exposing “widespread corruption and inequities in the federally-sponsored housing program for Native Americans, which inspired much-needed reforms.”[4]
In 2008, she received critical acclaim[6] for her book,The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth about U.S. War Crimes, which investigates declassified Army papers on Vietnam-era war crimes and uncovers the lives of soldiers who were witness to the crimes.
Nelson currently teaches courses on investigative reporting and media law and is on the advisory boards of the Fund for Investigative Journalism and theInvestigative Reporting Workshop.
As an investigative journalist,[7] Nelson has covered a wide range of topics, centered on exposing problems in the environment, the health industry, income inequality, and human rights violations. Her news publications also have addressed issues of misconduct in the gene therapy field and medical research in developing countries.
In 1997, Deborah Nelson shared the Pulitzer Prize with Eric Nalder and Alex Tizon for theirThe Seattle Times series that identified critical problems in the federal government's Indian Housing Program.[8][9] The series, titledTribal housing: From Deregulation to Disgrace, exposes that "Across the nation - in tribe after tribe, state after state - the Indian-housing program is riddled with fraud, abuse and mismanagement."[10] The series concludes with a five-point list of recommendations for a more effective tribal-housing program, which include the strict enforcement of rules, a mandate that requires that the bulk of federal funding to be channeled to low-income households that need assistance the most, and the creation of constraints that will prevent disproportionately large expenditures on small families.[11]
Nelson's series was crucial in initiating reform in the management of the tribal housing program.
Additionally, Nelson also co-edited[12] Pulitzer Prize-winning series forThe Washington Post, which covered the death of 229 children[13] in the District of Columbia, and for theLos Angeles Times on the death of 45 Marine pilots in Harrier jet accidents.[14]
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984
