Dana Canedy

Dana, most recently left her position as the first African-American woman administrator for The Pulitzer Prizes to take on her role at Simon & Schuster.

As Administrator of The Pulitzer Prizes, Dana had oversight of all aspects of the prestigious awards program in journalism, letters and the arts. She also served on its board of directors and was the Pulitzers’ spokesperson.

Dana is a former New York Times Pulitzer-winning journalist, who has written extensively on a broad range of topics, including business and finance, terrorism, politics, law enforcement, crime, race and class. She is also an author, media executive and motivational speaker who has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Dana is the author of the 2008 New York Times bestselling memoir, “A Journal for Jordan,” about life with her war-hero partner, and the journal he left for their infant son, before being killed in combat in Iraq. The book has been published in 10 countries in eight languages and has been optioned by Denzel Washington and Columbia Pictures. It is currently being adapted for a film by “Mudbound” Oscar-nominated co-writer Virgil Williams for Mr. Washington and Todd Black of Escape Artists, who are producing the project., along with Dana. The actor Michael B. Jordan is slated to star in the film.

During her tenure as part of the newsroom senior management team at The New York Times, Dana led newsroom talent acquisition, management training and staff development across media platforms. Prior to joining the Pulitzer Prizes in July 2017, she was special adviser to The Times’ CEO and executive editor on strategic planning, talent acquisition, change management, and diversity and inclusion best practices.

During her more than 20-year tenure at The Times, she also oversaw national breaking news coverage, assigning and editing the work of dozens of domestic correspondents in 12 news bureaus across the country. Prior to that, Dana was the Florida bureau chief for The Times, where she was responsible for all news coverage for the state.

Dana was a lead writer and editor on The Times series “How Race Is Lived in America,” about race relations in the United States, which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She joined The Times in 1996 as a national business and finance reporter.

Prior to joining The Times, Dana was a reporter for The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, where she covered law enforcement, suburban government and local business. She spent a year as an editor directing metropolitan coverage. She also worked for a year at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Florida, reporting on law enforcement and crime.

Dana is a founding board member of the Digital Diversity Network, a nonprofit trade association that advances inclusion in the leadership and ownership ranks of the digital media industry. She is also a past member of the Columbia Journalism School board of visitors and is a past board member of Project Morry, a nonprofit youth development organization that supports at-risk students.

Dana is a motivational speaker who has traveled extensively to universities, military installations and corporate headquarters speaking about effective leadership, change management, overcoming adversity and the elements of success.

Reared in Radcliff, Kentucky, she graduated from The University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. The school named her a Distinguished Alumna, in 2017. She lives in New York City with her son Jordan.