UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 29, Page 1
April 28, 1994
Melanie Lewis, UD 1986, is Pulitzer-Prize winner

     University of Delaware alumna Melanie Lewis, formerly of Wilmington,
is part of a team recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for International
Reporting at the Dallas Morning News.
     Lewis, eight other reporters, five photographers, three editors and
three graphic designers developed the award-winning series "Violence
Against Women: A Question of Human Rights."
     The series ran from March-June 1993 and covered questions of violence
against women in countries around the world in places as diverse as India
and Sweden. Lewis, who earned a bachelor's degree in English/journalism
from the University in 1986, reported on the situation in Canada.
     "I was lucky that one of the editors spearheading the project knew of
my interest in women's issues," Lewis, who is the newspaper's education
reporter, said. "We could pretty much choose the country we wanted to cover
and, while I would have liked to have done Africa, Canada was nice.
     "I spent two weeks there in Toronto and Montreal and saw the really
good things that Canada is doing to combat the problem. In 1989, there was
a mass slaying of 14 young women near Montreal and that galvanized the
country to do something about violence against women."
     The man who perpetrated Canada's worst mass murder, which took place
at the Universite de Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, said he "hated women"
and blamed "feminists" for his failures.
     For her story, Lewis spent time with one of the victim's families and,
as a result, wrote a riveting lead that explains their experiences
identifying the body in the morgue. The story goes on to detail Canada's
climate toward women and its actions to take seriously the issue of
violence against them.
     "It was a hard piece to write because I came back with a box load of
information and notes. It was a challenge to pull it all together and still
make it lively and interesting.
     "I don't think anyone thought about a Pulitzer as we were working on
the series. We just saw it as an opportunity to get the issue out there-to
put women in the forefront.
     "We won some state awards for the series and got a lot of letters from
women and from shelters thanking us for it. There were also some negative
letters about the stories on Islam. About a month and a half ago, I think
we started thinking about the Pulitzer when we learned we were finalists.
When it really happened, we were all thrilled. I was completely overwhelmed
and burst into tears."
     The award has a certain bittersweetness to it for Lewis, who had
previously decided to leave journalism for the field of teaching. Even now,
when she could probably find employment on any newspaper in the country,
she plans to pursue her dream of teaching. She will leave the Dallas
Morning News on May 13.
     Working as an education reporter, she says, furthered her interest and
commitment to pursue teaching as a career.
     "I've already started working to become an elementary school teacher,"
she said. "I'll be working toward alternative certification for two months
in the summer and become certified next year.
     "I've loved my time in journalism, but I have a real desire to help
young children. We do a lot of good things in journalism and we do some
things to bring about change, but I want to have an impact on at least one
child's life on a daily basis."
     A graduate of Claymont High School, Lewis majored in English with a
concentration in journalism at the University of Delaware.
     She worked for the student radio station WXDR (now WVUD) and for the
student newspaper, The Review. She also was a member of Phi Sigma Sigma and
sang in the Concert Choir.
     Lewis credits M. Dennis Jackson, UD professor of English, for sparking
her interest in journalism and being her mentor, especially during a
feature writing class. Jackson, she said, taught her "how to look and see
the things that are meaningful in people's words."
     She also cited former journalism faculty members Chuck Stone and
Edward Nickerson for their help in shaping her career. Stone, who taught
advanced reporting, was "very inspirational," and Nickerson "taught me the
basics," Lewis said.
     Upon graduating from the University, Lewis worked as a zone reporter,
general assignment reporter and education reporter for the Des Moines
Register until March 1990.
     She joined the Dallas paper in April 1990 as a bureau reporter and
became its education reporter in 1991.
     Her other awards include a Media Award from the Texas Council of
Family Violence, two School Bell awards for excellence in feature writing
from the Texas State Teachers Association and a national reporting award
for spot news from the Education Writers Association.
     She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the
Education Writers Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
     Her mother, Pearle Saulsberry, and a brother, Clarke Lewis, live in
Wilmington.
                                                  -Beth Thomas