PULLMAN, Wash. Ken Armstrong, one of two Seattle Times reporters to win a 2012 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on prescription drug abuse in Washington state, will discuss his investigation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, in Room 21 of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication Addition at Washington State University.Armstrong and Seattle Times reporter Michael J. Berens were awarded the Pulitzer in investigative reporting earlier this year for their work exposing the state’s financially motivated practice of routinely prescribing a deadly pain drug for people in state-subsidized health care.
”Ken Armstrong has a proven record of producing journalism that impacts society, from his work on the death penalty in Illinois to the Times’ remarkable project on methadone abuse,” said Lawrence Pintak, dean of the college. “We are excited to have him share his expertise with Murrow College students, as well as members of the public.”
Armstrong has worked at newspapers in Alamosa, Colo.; Twin Falls, Idaho; Escondido, Calif.; New York; Anchorage, Alaska; Newport News, Va.; Chicago and Seattle. He’s also been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and the McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton.
While at the Chicago Tribune, Armstrong investigated misconduct by prosecutors. In Seattle, he dug into hundreds of illegally sealed court files and investigated the community’s complicity in protecting wayward athletes. Armstrong grew up in Ohio, France, Germany, New Mexico and Indiana. He graduated from Purdue University in 1985.