2000 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year

Russell Carollo

Russell Carollo, born 1956, is an American journalist, and special projects reporter
with The Sacramento Bee. Along with Jeff Nesmith, he won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for
National Reporting and the 1996 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting at the
Dayton Daily News for uncovering mismanagement in military healthcare.

He is a native of suburban New Orleans who graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University.
He was a University of Michigan journalism fellow. In addition to the Dayton Daily
News, he was also a reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

Russell Carollo is a  Pulitzer Prize winning journalist whose specialties include
computer-assisted reporting, FOIA, public records, the military and long-term investigative
projects. He’s been a Pulitzer finalist four times, most recently in 2002. His series
on medical malpractice in the military won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting,
and he’s won numerous other national awards.  Some of these include Harvard University’s
Goldsmith Award, two White House Correspondent’s Association awards and six Investigative
Reporters & Editors awards. Three awards were personally presented to him by U.S.
presidents (George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford).

During his 30-year career, Carollo reported from at least 17 countries. He has a bachelor’s
degree in history from Southeastern Louisiana University and a bachelor’s degree in
journalism from Louisiana State University, which inducted him into its Journalism
Hall of Fame in 2009. He also is a former Michigan Journalism Fellow. Carollo worked
as a special projects reporter for the Dayton Daily News, Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles
Times, and he’s taught journalism at Colorado College and Oklahoma State University.
He is a consultant, retrieving public records (including databases) through FOIA and
state public records laws, analyzing data and doing other research for clients including
media.