The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) is proud to present John Tierney of City Journal with the Kenneth Y. Tomlinson Award for Courageous Journalism and Mary Anastasia O’Grady of The Wall Street Journal with the Thomas L. Phillips Career Achievement Award at the 32nd Annual TFAS Journalism Forum + Awards Dinner in New York City on November 11, 2025.
TFAS will present John Tierney, contributing editor to City Journal, with the Kenneth Y. Tomlinson Award for Courageous Journalism for his excellence in reporting and determination to present the truth. He spent two decades at The New York Times as a reporter, columnist and magazine writer.
Tierney is a veteran journalist and bestselling author known for challenging media-driven narratives and exposing the unintended consequences of public policy. At City Journal, he has written extensively on the politicization of science, government overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-term damage of fear-based policymaking.
Alongside Tierney, Mary Anastasia O’Grady will be presented with the Thomas L. Phillips Career Achievement Award. O’Grady writes The Wall Street Journal’s weekly “Americas” column and is a member of the Journal’s editorial board. She joined the newspaper in 1995.
O’Grady has spent nearly three decades at the Journal advocating for economic freedom and democratic values in Latin America and Canada. Her award-winning column is renowned for its fearless analysis of authoritarian regimes and flawed U.S. policies. She is a recipient of the Bastiat Prize for Journalism and TFAS’s Walter Judd Freedom Award.
TFAS President Roger Ream ’76 reflected on the significance of this year’s honorees and the ongoing impact of TFAS’s journalism programs.
“TFAS is honored to recognize John Tierney and Mary O’Grady, two journalists who exemplify courage, integrity and intellectual rigor,” Ream said. “Both have dedicated their careers to uncovering truth, challenging conventional narratives and upholding the highest standards of a free press.”
In addition to honoring Tierney and O’Grady, TFAS will officially award seven early-career journalists with the 2025-26 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Awards. Emma Camp of Reason, Caroline Downey of National Review, Jordan McGillis of City Journal, Timothy Harley Nerozzi of The Washington Examiner, Valerie Pavilonis of The Dispatch, Katelyn Walls Shelton and Maya Sulkin of The Free Press will each spend one year researching and providing in-depth reporting on their chosen topics surrounding the principles of a free society. Topics include ideology on college campuses, how “Gen Z” compares to previous generations and America’s religious revival.
The recipients of the 2025-26 Joseph Rago Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Journalism will also be awarded. For the first time since its creation in 2018, three exceptional journalists will be awarded the fellowship – Kate Farmer, Cole Murphy and Suzanna Murawski. Named after Joseph Rago, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member who passed away in 2017, the Rago Fellowship awards qualified aspiring journalists with a nine-month internship with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page.
This year’s event will feature new afternoon panels and discussion sessions featuring prominent TFAS alumni and members of the TFAS Student Journalism Association. These sessions will highlight TFAS’s impact on the field of journalism and showcase updates from TFAS alumni who are making headlines every day. TFAS is proud to be an organization dedicated to nurturing the next generation of courageous leaders in journalism. Many of TFAS alumni go on to achieve remarkable success as Pulitzer Prize winners, best-selling authors and editors at prestigious national publications.
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