Nicholas Kristof is one of seven recipients of the 2011 Top American Leaders awards, bestowed by The Washington Post’s On Leadership section and the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership. This year’s recipients were chosen by a selection committee convened by the Center for Public Leadership, and will be honored at Ford’s Theatre on December 5, 2011.![](http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/11/29/National-Enterprise/Images/kristof_2.jpg)
Nicholas Kristof began his career at the New York Times in 1984. He was not yet an op-ed columnist working to expose injustices of global health, poverty and human trafficking. Rather, Kristof covered economics as a news reporter.
Fast forward 27 years and two Pulitzer Prizes. Kristof now writes a twice-weekly column for the Times, focusing on issues of international human-rights violations. Yet, Kristof’s most significant work as an American leader is the way in which his writing has reshaped the field of opinion journalism, a testament to the importance of reporting and the written word.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/nicholas-kristof-how-a-new-york-times-columnist-rewrote-opinion-journalism/2011/11/28/gIQA7PHY8N_story.html