Awards

Congratulations to AP's Julie Hirschfeld Davis and CNN's Brianna Keilar.

The National Press Foundation announced Davis and Keilar yesterday as the recipients of the Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting on Congress, print and broadcast respectively.

The congressional reporters will receive their awards (and a $5,000 prize) at the NPF's 27th annual dinner in February. Awards in six other categories will also be presented then.

Julia Duin, religion editor for The Washington Times, recently snagged two awards from the Religion Newswriters Association, the professional organization for journalists who cover religion in the secular media.

Duin was the second-place winner in the Religion Reporter of the Year category and took third in the Cornell Award competition.

For more details see TWT here. Congrats to Julia!

* Photo by Jay McMichael

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux will receive Essence's Journalist of the Year award this evening. Essence & Southern Company are partnering to host a special awards reception as part of the 2009 Congressional Black Caucus weekend to commemorate the achievements of today's most influential politicians and architects of change.

The program will honor the accomplishments of The Honorable Congresswoman Barbara Lee with the Advocate Award; Musician & Activist Dr. Henry Panion, III with the Civic & Cultural Advancement Award; Morehouse College President Robert M. Franklin, Jr. with the Hope Award; and CNN Washington Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux as Journalist of the Year.

Congratulations to Suzanne!

Washington's own Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, aka Chita Rivera, was one of 16 notable Medal of Freedom Recipients recognized in a ceremony yesterday. Rivera was born and raised in D.C. and attended the prestigious Jones Haywood School of Dance before making a brand new start of it in NYC.

She and The President share something else in common: they both "know the adversity that comes with a difficult name".

At their annual Salute to Excellence Awards, the locally-based National Association of Black Journalists welcomed Emmy Award-winnning and ex-officio RTNDA member Kathy Times as their new president. Times recently unveiled NABJ360, which she calls "Media Bistro, Facebook and Amazon.com rolled into one".

As we reported earlier, other NABJ honors were also handed out:

Journalist of the Year - Michele Norris, NPR
Lifetime Achievement Award - Michael Wilbon, WaPo/ESPN
Emerging Journalist of the Year - Cynthia Gordy ESSENCE

CQ reporter Tim Starks won the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, announced yesterday. Must run in the CQ family-- Jonathan Allen was the recipient in 2008.

Starks won the award for his CQ Weekly cover story on secrecy in Congress, "A Dome Under Lock and Key."

Congrats and hope you're celebrating this weekend, Tim!

What do CBS' Bob Schieffer, PBS' Gwen Ifill, US News & World Report's Kenneth Walsh and the Bureau of National Affairs' Toby McIntosh have in common?

All will be inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists' DC Pro Chapter's Hall of Fame on June 9th. WaPo columnist Courtland Milloy will also receive the Chapter's 2009 Distinguished Service Award at this event. More details here.

National Journal's James Kitfield was named this year's winner of the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense.

Kitfield won the prize in 1990 and 1995 and is the is the only reporter to have won it more than once. He will receive this year's award, which comes with a $5,000 prize, at a June 1 ceremony in Washington.

NBC's Brian Williams hosted the Peabody Awards on May 18th in New York. Winners included Washington Week's Gwen Ifill, the NYT website, and CNN for their "Coverage of 2008 Presidential Primary and Debates." NPR snagged three. Click here for the full list of winners.

Meet the Press' Betsy Fischer and CNBC's Erin Burnett are just two of the five ladies being honored tomorrow evening at Running Start's annual "Women to Watch Awards." The event will be held at the National Press Club to honor some of the most impressive young women in the country.

Other women who made the list this year are Julie Gilbert, Founder and CEO of WOLF Means Business, WH Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen, and Tammy Duckworth of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dee Dee Myers, Dana Perino, Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, Dina Habib Powell and Liz Haesler will all be on hand to introduce the honorees.

For more information about the organization or tomorrow's awards, visit Running Start.