David V. Hawpe

Mr. David V. Hawpe is from Louisville, Kentucky. In 2009 he concluded a 40-year career at his hometown newspapers, during which he rose from Eastern Kentucky Bureau Reporter to Managing Editor, Editorial Director, and Editor of The Courier-Journal. During his tenure in leadership positions, the Courier-Journal won four Pulitzer Prizes.

Since retirement, Hawpe has worked on political campaigns and served on the Morehead State University Board of Regents. He is Co-Chair of the Jefferson County Recovery Court Project. Beginning with the 2013 Kentucky General Assembly session, he has been senior aide to Sen. Morgan McGarvey.

Hawpe was a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council (2010-16) and serves on the editorial board of the University Press of Kentucky. He also edited the recent book "Two Centuries of Black Louisville."

Hawpe graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1965 and was given an honorary doctorate from Lindsey Wilson College in 2009. He was a Nieman Fellow and faculty member at Harvard University from 1974-75, and completed a summer program in media law at Stanford University in 1969.

Throughout his career, Hawpe's industry-wide work focused almost entirely on fostering diversity in American journalism. In 2009 he received the James Madison Award for Service to the First Amendment and was given the Distinguished Service Award by the National Associated Press Managing Editors (APME). He served as APME President and led the successful rewrite of its ethics policy, adding a mandate for diverse staffing and coverage by newspapers. Earlier recognition included the 1999 National Walker Stone Prize for Editorial Writing and that year's Anthony Lewis Media Award for Public Advocacy from the State Department of Public Advocacy.