Our Awards
Since our founding in late 2021, MindSite News has won a total of 30 awards – and counting! This page has a running list of our awards, and we’ll continue to update it as we win new ones.
Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism, 2025, from the Institute for Nonprofit News
For the series Silent Battles / Luchas Invisibles, written by Alma Campos, MindSite News and palabra.
This four-part series covers the trauma of immigrants forced to flee violence in their home countries and in the United States.
- Silent Battles/Luchas Invisibles, written by Alma Campos and produced by editors, photographers, translators and factcheckers at MindSite News and our colleagues at palabra, the online platform of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Children’s Advocacy Institute Award, 2025
For the series Forgotten Children, by Michele Cohen Marill, MindSite News.
This four-part series looked at the underreported tragedy of childhood grief after the wave of parental deaths from COVID-19, the overdose epidemic and gun violence
- Forgotten Children: A Four Part Series, written by Michele Cohen Marill and edited by Diana Hembree and Rob Waters.
Peter Lisagor Award, 2025
Best Reporting on Crime and Justice (Small Print/Online category)
- A West Side Story: How to Traumatize a Neighborhood, written and/or designed by Josh McGhee, Emeline Posner and Matt Kiefer, MindSite News.
Green Eyeshade Awards, 2025
Serious Feature Writing, Third Place Winner
- MindSite News & Verite News – Michele Cohen Marill, Forgotten Children: The Unseen Victims of Gun Violence Are the Children Left Behind
GOLD AWARD, Digital Health Awards, 2025
For a story on the explosion of TikTok content on a rare mental diagnosis, by Astrid Landon, Mindsite News.
GOLD AWARD, Digital Health Awards, 2025
For the series Forgotten Children, by Michele Cohen Marill, MindSite News.
- Parental death has been rising in the U.S. due to COVID-19, the overdose epidemic and gun violence. This was a four-part series on the tragic and underreported problem of childhood grief – and the efforts to address it. Support for the reporting in the series was provided by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2024 National Fellowship and its Kristy Hammam Fund for Health Journalism and by the Commonwealth Fund.
SILVER AWARD, Digital Health Awards, 2025.
For an investigation on DOGE’s assault on the National Institute of Mental Health, by Art Levine and Rob Waters, MindSite News
Mental Health America’s Media Award, 2024
MHA’s Media Award recognizes journalists and filmmakers that tackle the issues of mental illness and addiction – and in doing so, educate, inform, and break down stigma around these issues.
- In 2024, MindSite News, “the only national journalism outlet dedicated to reporting on mental health in America” won the Media Award.
DANDA Award for Excellence in Design, 2024
- MindSite News won the Silver Award for Excellence in Design for the MindSite News Daily, written, designed and/or edited by Don Sapatkin, Rob Waters, Courtney Wise, and Diana Hembree.
The Stillwater Awards, 2024
Best collaboration between an incarcerated writer and a writer on the outside. Josh McGhee and Kory Hussain McClary.
- “The Last Days of Little Eddie,” The Guardian US, MindSite News and Prison Journalism Project. This collaboration between a prison journalist and an investigative reporter revealed the suffering and death of a 49-year-old man serving life at a New Jersey prison. One judge said it was “full of details just never seen by the average reader.”
Studs Terkel Award
Best body of work in community journalism in Chicago, 2024. Josh McGhee, MindSite News staff reporter.
- “Josh creates fresh, important work that taps into and spotlights underserved communities,” said Britt Julious of the Public Narrative, whose award contest recognizes the best in Chicago community journalism. “His ability to craft insightful pieces speaks to the sort of compassionate, intersectional mindset that makes for a great winner of the Studs Terkel award.”
Peter Lisagor Award
Best Reporting on Crime and Justice/Small Print/Online, 2023. Josh McGhee and Ola Giwa.
- Josh McGhee, MindSite News staff reporter and Ola Giwa, WBEZ, Illinois is Getting Better at Answering Calls to the Suicide Crisis Line. Will Chicago’s South Side Be Left Behind?
Association of Health Care Journalists Award
Best in Beat Reporting Award, AHCJ Awards, 2024. Celeste Hamilton Dennis, MindSite News.
- Hamilton Dennis received an AHCJ Beat Reporting Award, third place, for her coverage of mental health care innovations, including Black doulas, a Chinatown dental clinic that screens for depression and a California program to train undocumented therapists.
San Francisco Press Club Awards, 2023
First Place, Digital Media Series. Sarah Henry, MindSite News.
- Sarah Henry, three Arts & Culture stories on the portrayal of mental illness in popular culture, including Ted Lasso, Anthony Bourdain’s suicide, and the making of the psych ward drama WAKEFIELD.
Blog/Commentary Award:
- Julia Landau, MindSite News essay: “An Interrogation of Grief“
GOLD AWARD, Digital Health Awards (DHA)
Astrid Landon, MindSite News investigation
- Astrid Landon, “How I Passed a Test To Be a Grief Therapist Without Really Trying,” with “Buyer, Be Aware: An Inside Look at Four Grief Counseling Programs” and sidebar
Digital Health Awards
Gold Award, Digital Health Awards, 2024
Josh McGhee
- Florida’s Baker Act Has Seized Kids and Adults for Forced Mental Health Treatment
Almost 2 Million Times. Are Advocates Finally Forcing Change?
Josh McGhee, MindSite News, and The Appeal
Gold Award, Digital Health Awards, 2024
Celeste Hamilton Dennis, MindSite News
Gold Award, Digital Health Awards, 2024
MindSite News Daily (Monday Edition)
- Don Sapatkin, writer, and Rob Waters, editor
Bronze Award, Digital Health Awards, 2024
Yesenia Barrios, MindSite News
Bronze Award, Digital Health Awards, 2024
Celeste Hamilton Dennis, MindSite News
Bronze Award, Digital Health Awards, 2024
Celeste Hamilton Dennis, MindSite News
Silver Award, Digital Health Awards, 2023 (Series on the case against corporal punishment):
- Diana Hembree, “Why School Paddling Is Legal Child Abuse: First Person“
- Laurie Udesky, “‘Corporal Punishment Is Violence: Black Communities Vow to Ban School Paddling“
- Courtney Wise, “Spare the Child: Spanking Harms Both Children and Caregivers“
Silver Award (Individual), 2023
- Diana Hembree, “Why School Paddling Is Legal Child Abuse: First Person“
Merit Awards, Digital Health Awards, 2023:
- Akintunde Ahmad, “The Confess Project: Barbers Help Black Men Talk About Mental Health“
- Diana Kapp, “Eco-Anxiety: The Real Tsunami of Climate Change“
- Holly Korbey, “Young Advocates Take the Lead to Curb Campus Suicides“
- Laurie Udesky, “Combating Veteran Suicides with Peers, Therapy, Housing – and a Little Horse Sense“
National Health Information Awards, 2023
Diana Hembree and Courtney Wise
- Silver Award, MindSite News, for its Spotlight on Kids, Youth and Family Weekly Newsletter
Spotlight on Kids, Youth and Family Newsletter, is a weekly MindSite News newsletter for parents, caregivers, teachers, extended family, child advocates, researchers and others.
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The name “MindSite News” is used with the express permission of Mindsight Institute, an educational organization offering online learning and in-person workshops in the field of mental health and wellbeing. MindSite News and Mindsight Institute are separate, unaffiliated entities that are aligned in making science accessible and promoting mental health globally.
