Steve Sapienza

Steve Sapienza is an award-winning news and documentary producer who has covered a wide range of human security stories in dozens of countries, including the HIV crisis in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, child soldiers in Sierra Leone, climate refugees in Bangladesh, and landmine survivors in Cambodia. For more than 20 years he has shot and produced stories for broadcast television and online distribution.

His stories have been broadcast or published by outlets like the PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, The Financial Times, NPR, and Al Jazeera. He was chief cinematographer for Easy Like Water, an independent documentary feature about climate change in Bangladesh, which won a 2013 CINE Golden Eagle.  In 2009, he earned National News & Documentary Emmy for his work on LiveHopeLove.com, a ground-breaking multimedia project focusing on the human face of HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. In 2002, he produced Deadlock: Russia's Forgotten War for CNN Presents, winner of a CINE Golden Eagle. Most recently, he developed the investigative reporting collaborative TAKEN: How the Police Profit from Seized Property, a data-driven investigation of civil asset forfeiture involving newsrooms and journalists in the US Midwest.

As Senior editor for the Pulitzer Center, he works closely with the Center's grantees and fellows, new media makers, and newsrooms to identify the collaborative space, digital tools, reporting strategies, and partnerships that enable storytellers to best reach their audience. He co-leads the Center's StoryReach U.S. fellowship program, a reporting and engagement lab where journalists hosted at local U.S. outlets work together to innovate and combine breakthrough reporting with creative and effective audience outreach strategies.

Steve is based in Washington, DC and enjoys the outdoors— camping and hiking with family and friends as much as possible.