ProPublica, for the work of Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg

Joshua Kaplan is a reporter at ProPublica. Since joining the newsroom in January 2020, he has reported on the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and misconduct by undercover police officers in New York City, among other subjects.

Kaplan’s work with colleagues at ProPublica has received national honors including a George Polk Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

Justin Elliott has been a reporter with ProPublica since 2012, where he covers business and politics.

In recent years, he was on the team of reporters documenting how the rich avoid taxes for “The Secret IRS Files” series. He co-wrote the story revealing tech mogul Peter Thiel’s multibillion-dollar Roth IRA. Previously, his work on TurboTax-maker Intuit’s misleading marketing tactics led to a settlement that delivered $141 million back to consumers.

His other work has spurred congressional investigations and changes to federal legislation. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in history and classics.

Brett Murphy is a reporter on ProPublica’s national desk. He joined the newsroom in 2022, after working as an investigative reporter at USA Today, where he covered labor, criminal justice and the federal government. Murphy’s stories on widespread labor abuses in California’s port trucking industry was a finalist for a 2018 Pulitzer Prize and spurred a raft of reforms. He also co-founded the “Local Matters” newsletter, a weekly roundup of the best investigative and watchdog reporting from local newsrooms around the country. Murphy lives in Brooklyn.

Alex Mierjeski is a research reporter at ProPublica. Before joining the staff in 2020, he was a fellow with the organization’s Local Reporting Network. Alex’s work at ProPublica has covered a wide range of subjects, including groundwater contamination from former uranium mill sites, the business entanglements of West Virginia’s governor and the Trump administration. Prior to joining ProPublica, he was a fellow in the postgraduate investigative reporting program at the Columbia Journalism School, from which he holds a master’s degree.

Kirsten Berg is a research reporter with ProPublica. She has contributed to investigations on a range of topics, including the CDC’s hobbled response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the origins of President Donald Trump’s false stolen election claims, the rise of Chinese state repression in the U.S. and the impact of conservative-led anti-critical race theory campaigns at public universities.

Previously, Kirsten worked with Future Tense, the New America Fellows Program, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Frontline. She was also once an intern at ProPublica.