Arthur Ross Media Award
Arthur Ross Media Award
for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis on Foreign Affairs
The American Academy of Diplomacy annually honors one outstanding reporter and one distinguished commentator with its two Arthur Ross Awards for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis on Foreign Affairs. The awards, endowed by and given in honor of the late Arthur Ross, seek to recognize individuals or groups of individuals (e.g., a news bureau) whose reporting and analysis on diplomacy and foreign affairs is making a singular contribution to public understanding of the critical role played by diplomacy in the furtherance of America’s foreign policy interests. One award is given to a journalist/reporter and another to a commentator/columnist. Each award includes a cash stipend of $5,000.
2023 Ross Award Eligibility Criteria:
- Nominees must be U.S. citizens who work/reside anywhere, either in the United States or abroad.
- The work of the nominees must be making a singular contribution to public understanding of foreign affairs or the critical role played by diplomacy in the furtherance of America’s foreign policy interests.
- Nominees can come from print or electronic publications.
- Nominees can be in one of two categories: Reporter/Journalist category or Commentator category.
- Nominees in the Commentator category can include columnists, editorial writers, cartoonists, or commentators.
Selection Process:
Nominations will be reviewed, and recommendations made, by the AAD Media Award committee and then be formally approved by the full AAD Board of Directors.
The awards are usually presented at the Academy’s Annual Awards Luncheon ceremony in Washington D.C. in early November.
History of Arthur Ross Media Award Recipients
To access an extended list of previous award winners, click here.
The Academy’s Ross Media Awards are given in honor of the late Arthur Ross and endowed by the Ross Foundation.
Recipient
Michele Kelemen
Reporter
Recipient of the 2023 Arthur Ross Media Award
Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR’s Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington’s diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
As Diplomatic Correspondent, Kelemen has traveled with Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Antony Blinken and everyone in between. She was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.
As NPR’s Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin’s consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.
Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.
Michele earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.
Recipient
Thomas L. Friedman
Commentator
Recipient of the 2023 Arthur Ross Media Award
Thomas L. Friedman became the New York Times’s foreign affairs Opinion columnist in 1995. He joined the paper in 1981, after which he served as the Beirut bureau chief in 1982, Jerusalem bureau chief in 1984, and then in Washington as the diplomatic correspondent in 1989, and later the White House correspondent and economic correspondent.
Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel). He also won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Mr. Friedman is the author of “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won the National Book Award in 1989. He has written several other books, including “Hot, Flat and Crowded,” an international best seller.
Born in Minneapolis, Mr. Friedman received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a master’s in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. His column appears every Sunday and Wednesday.