Our Keynote Speaker & Panelist
CAITLIN DICKERSON
Pulitzer and Peabody Award-Winning Journalist The Atlantic
We are living through a historic moment in America ’ s immigration story . But it ’ s impossible to understand that without the proper context . Caitlin Dickerson offers that context . A Pulitzer Prize winner and Peabody-winning journalist , she is an Atlantic staff writer covering immigration ; previously , she covered this beat for years at The New York Times . The biggest immigration policy changes have taken place behind closed doors , and as an investigative reporter who helped crack open many of these changes , Dickerson explains how these decisions were made ( and why ). In talks , she tells the human stories of those who have been impacted most : asylum-seeking families , children separated from their parents , farmers , business owners — people whose stories help audiences expand their understanding of this hot-button topic .
The changes rocking American immigration policy right now will reshape this country for generations to come . They will reverberate across the globe . To help us understand what is at play , and what is at stake , there is Atlantic staff writer Caitlin Dickerson . She won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for her powerful cover story , “‘ We Need to Take Away Children .’” This exhaustive investigation , one of the longest articles in The Atlantic ‘ s history , exposed the secret history of the Trump administration ’ s policy to intentionally separate migrant children from their parents : how it came into being , who was responsible , and how its worst outcomes were anticipated and ignored . The Pulitzer Committee calls her writing “ deeply reported and compelling .”
Prior to this , she covered immigration for The New York Times , where she also wrote for The New York Times Magazine , guest-hosted The Daily , and starred in a TV commercial about her investigative work that aired during the Super Bowl . In talks , Dickerson shares behind-the-scenes stories and helps audiences grasp what the ongoing changes mean , as well as how they may shape the future of this country . From tracking down the youngest child to be separated from his parents at the southwest border , to exposing the truth about conditions inside detention facilities where hundreds of children were being housed without access to adequate food or the ability to bathe , to new political and policy developments , she has a front row seat to this unprecedented generational change .
For a series on The Daily , Dickerson dove into major elements of the family separation story that she brought to light , including that thousands had occurred before the US government admitted to the practice , and that border agents destroyed records that could have been used to track down families after they were torn apart . She has also appeared on Fresh Air to discuss stories she ’ s broken around conditions inside migrant detention facilities . Dickerson also appears on CNN as a policy analyst . She is the recipient of the Edward R . Murrow Award , and won a Peabody Award for her investigative work on veterans issues , which led to the passage of a new law . She ’ s also won two awards from the National Association of Black Journalists .