This year's Damon Runyon Award ceremony will be April 27, 2024 at the Curtis Hotel in Denver, CO. 

2024 Damon Runyon Award Honoree

Photo by Antoine Sanfuentes

Ann Curry

Award-winning journalist Ann Curry, a former NBC Network news anchor and national and
international correspondent, has reported from conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Darfur,
Congo, the Central African Republic, Kosovo, Serbia, Lebanon, and Israel; on nuclear tensions from
North Korea and Iran and on numerous humanitarian disasters, including the tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Japan, and the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where her appeal via Twitter/X(@AnnCurry) is credited for helping to speed the arrival of humanitarian planes.  

She contributed groundbreaking journalism on Climate Change when it was being denied,
interviewing scientists and native peoples, documenting glacial melt in the Arctic, the Antarctic
(where she spent time inside an expedition hut left by Shackleton) and on Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as documenting the deepening drought in the American West.  

Ann is also known for her focused reporting from inside Iran, giving voice to its women, human rights activists, and young people, including Green Revolution activists. She also first broke the news of Iran’s interest in negotiating a nuclear agreement with the outside world. 

Ann has conducted a long list of exclusive and news breaking interviews, which have included Iran’s
President Hassan Rouhani, President Ahmadinejad, President Khatami and Foreign Minister Zarif;
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and First Lady Asma al-Assad; Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto,
President Ali Zadari and President Musharraf; Turkey’s President Erdogan; Sudan’s President Omar
Bashir and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir; Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; Chad’s
President Idriss Deby; as well as U.S. Presidents George Prescott Bush, Bill Clinton, George Walker
Bush and Barack Obama, as well as Vice-President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, Secretaries of State
John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and First Lady Laura Bush. 

Ann was given the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement in Journalism award in 2022.  She has 
7 national news Emmys for her reporting along with numerous Murrow, Gracie, and National
Headliner Awards.  The NAACP has honored her with an Excellence in Reporting award
and Women in Communications has awarded her a Matrix.  

Ann has also been given numerous humanitarian awards, including from Refugees International,
Americares, Save the Children, and the Muhammad Ali Center.  The Simon Wiesenthal Center,
awarded her a Medal of Valor, for her dedication to reporting about genocide.   

Ann is currently a Poynter fellow at Yale University.

Past Damon Runyon Award Honorees

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez

2023

Los Angeles Times columnist

Eugene Robinson

Eugene Robinson

2022

Associate Editor and Columnist for The Washington Post
and Commentator for MSNBC

Judy Woodruff

Judy Woodruff

2020

Managing Editor and Anchor for PBS NewsHour

Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward

2019

Reporter and Editor at The Washington Post

Marty Baron

Marty Baron

2018

Executive Editor of the Washington Post

David Simon

David Simon

2017

Creator of HBO's The Wire.

Jill Abramson

Jill Abramson

2016

Former editor of The New York Times

Norm Clarke

Norm Clarke

2015

Longtime Rocky Mountain News and Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist

Katie Couric

Katie Couric

2014

Former CBS News Anchor

Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica

2013

New York Daily News Columnist

Frank Deford

Frank Deford

2012

Sportswriter / NPR Sports Commentator

Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen

2011

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist

P.J. O'Rourke

P.J. O'Rourke

2010

Journalist and political satirist

Rick Reilly

Rick Reilly

2009

Sportswriter

Tim Russert

Tim Russert

2008

Former Meet the Press anchor on NBC.

Bob Costas

Bob Costas

2007

NBC Sports and Olympics anchor

George Will

George Will

2006

Columnist for The Washington Post

Seymour Hersh

Seymour Hersh

2005

Journalist for The New Yorker and the London Review of Books

Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen

2004

Columnist for the Miami Herald and Tribune Content Agency.

Ed Bradley

Ed Bradley

2003

Correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes.

David Halberstam

David Halberstam

2002
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and historian

Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw

2001

Former NBC Nightly News Anchor

Maureen Dowd

Maureen Dowd

2000

Columnist for The New York Times

Ted Turner

Ted Turner

1999

Founder of CNN

Pete Hamill

Pete Hamill

1998

Former columnist and editor of the New York Daily News and the New York Post

Herb Caen

Herb Caen

1996
Humorist and journalist

Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins

1996
Columnist and author

Mike Royko

Mike Royko

1995
Pulitzer Prize winning columnist

Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin

1994
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author