Greg Barrett

Washington, DC USA
Website: http://www.gregbarrett.org

Professional Experience

Pulitzer-nominated local, national and foreign correspondent on staffs of newspapers and wire for twenty years; covered public protests in Egypt, sex trafficking in Thailand, war in Iraq, downsizing in the United States -- a variety of stories/projects ranging from Washington's wars on drugs, terror and human trafficking to the Department of Homeland Security, Middle East peace and health-care reform. Once, even, I fought a national boxing champ in Sacramento's Arco Arena for a first-person magazine piece. Also, I have authored a narrative nonfiction book, "The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions & Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok (Wiley, 2008)," winner of the 2009 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal for conscious media, journalism and investigative reporting. Currently at work on a narrative nonfiction book based in Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Frequent speaker in college classrooms and churches on issues of global poverty and ecumenical philosophy.

Expertise

Book Author
5 Years
Writer
25 Years
Reporter
20 Years

Specialty

Religion
7 Years
War & Conflicts
8 Years
Politics
12 Years

Industries


Newspaper - National
7 Years
Newspaper - Local/Regional
9 Years
Wire Service
5 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

25 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

The Baltimore Sun (10+), USA Today (10+), Gannett News Service (10+), Huffington Post (6-10), God's Politics / Sojourner's magazine (3-5), Christian Science Monitor (1-2), Chronogram (1-2), Conspire magazine (1-2), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Journal (1-2), Salon (1-2)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Ghostwriter (1-2)

Other Work History

State & Investigative Correspondent at The Baltimore Sun National and Investigative Correspondent at Gannett News Service in its GNS/USA Today Washington Bureau Enterprise Reporter at The Honolulu Advertiser Government Reporter at the Charlotte (NC) Observer

Technical Skills

Adobe Acrobat. Final Cut.

Computer Skills

Word. Windows. Flash. HTML

Equipment

Laptops. Digital Cameras (published photographer). Audio recording equipment.

References

Editors at Gannett, Conspire, Wiley Books, Salon, etc. Names, nos. provided upon request.

Awards

2009 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal 2008 Pulitzer Prize nomination for nonfiction books 2006 AP Mark Twain Award for investigative reporting (co-author) 1997 Pulitzer Prize nomination for local news reporting 1996 George Chaplin Award for Journalistic Excellence 1992 Society of Professional Journalists 1st Place Magazine Sports Feature / California / A Fighter's Pulse / Sacramento magazine

Associations

Authors Guild

Showcase

General

Iraq Journal: Confronting Saddam
(Gannett News Service 3/1/2003)
On the ground with everyday Iraqis in Baghdad and Basra as the country braces for military invasion.
And you wanna know why Iraqis walk (and protest) like Egyptians?
(Huffington Post 2/25/2011)
If you're wondering why free Iraqis would now walk like an Egyptian, and protest like one too, I can give you more than forty trillion reasons...
Like Big Tobacco, Big Porn Peddles Poison to Children
(Huffington Post 6/26/2009)
Op-ed about the prospects of federal government regulating the porn industry like it has big tobacco.
Gay weddings push marriage issue into election-year spotlight
(USA Today 5/18/2004)
Political story on the partisan issue of gay marriage leading up to Bush's 2004 election.
No Man's Land
(Conspire magazine 2/1/2011)
Centerpiece article/essay about walls visible and invisible that keep nations, peoples, religions, cultures separated and unfamiliar with one another.
Common Good Victimized by Group Loyalty: Gun Control in Philadelphia
(Huffington Post 2/26/2010)
Analysis of gun-control issues and the Tea Party.
NOT Made in America
(Gannett News Service Multimedia 10/10/2003)
Multi-part series of stories about NAFTA and American factory workers losing jobs to competing workers outside the United States.
Families left at home soldier on
(USA Today 4/9/2003)
War seen through the eyes of CNN and the military families left behind
Chasing security with dollars
(The Baltimore Sun 5/29/2005)
An investigation into how one state government (Maryland's) used its flood of homeland security monies.
The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions & Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok
(Wiley Books 4/1/2008)
Narrative nonfiction book. Summary: Three decades ago in a cordoned-off corner of the developing world an angry Catholic priest armed only with pencil, paper, and crayons, declared a revolution. From a shanty school shared with Buddhists and Muslims in Bangkok's squatter slums, Father Joe Maier began his advance on abject poverty. Today, his Human Development Foundation and Mercy Centre charity is responsible for thirty-two preschools that have taught more than seventy thousand children how to read and write. Despite the crippling neglect found in impoverishment, he is raising international scholars and injecting a sense of purpose into shantytowns and squatter camps that used to have neither. While extremists and jihadists rant, rave, and wrestle over the first rights to God, "Father Joe" quietly exudes God's universal, selfless spirit.
Peace Activists in Baghdad Brace for Consequences of War
(Gannett News Service 3/12/2003)
In Baghdad, Iraq as U.S. peace activists brace for the inevitable start of Shock & Awe.
When War is Unjust Should Soldiers Just Say No?
(Huffington Post 3/19/2010)
My pre-event coverage of the Truth Commission on Conscience in War hearings in New York City.
Scientists search for the seat of evil
(USA Today 5/10/2001)
A look into the brains of killers such as Timothy McVeigh on the eve of McVeigh's execution.
Ignoring the Big C
(Salon 10/11/2004)
Three-part series/investigation into the private vs. public funding of Congress' decades-old "War on Cancer."
The Body Farm: Researchers Lift Clues of Death from Field of Cadavers
(USA Today 4/16/2004)
Feature story about a forensic lab with a ghoulish nickname: the University of Tennessee's Body Farm. The outdoor research facility in the Bible Belt city of Knoxville, Tenn., strives to be inconspicuous even as it trains the FBI and is touted by crime fighters nationwide as their brick on the scales of justice. Forensic facts gleaned from the human rot at the University of Tennessee Medical Center have been credited with jailing murderers from Mississippi to Arizona.
UN Sanctions Hit Iraqi Children the Hardest
(Seattle Times 8/4/2002)
Investigation into the long-term consequences of U.S.-led, U.N.-enforced economic sanctions on Iraq.
Obama's speech bridges the Abrahamic faiths
(Huffington Post 6/4/2009)
My coverage of President Obama's inaugural speech in Cairo on peace in the Middle East.
In Carradine Death Thailand's Sex Caricature Endures
(Huffington Post 6/10/2009)
Op-ed on strange death of David Carradine amid Bangkok, Thailand's robust sex tourism industry
Examining Homeland Security
(The Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Journal of Investigative 1/1/2006)
Cover story on how I and others investigated Maryland's Department of Homeland Security records for a series of stories in The Baltimore Sun.
Americans Listening to Palestinians Listening to Israelis
(Sojourner's 1/28/2010)
Contributions to author Brian McLaren's blogs as he travels through the Middle East to investigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.