Scott Higham joined The Washington Post in 2000 and conducted numerous investigations for the news organization, including an examination of the D.C. foster care system, abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and waste and fraud in Homeland Security contracting. He was part of a team of reporters that investigated police-involved shootings in the U.S. The foster care series with Sari Horwitz and Sarah Cohen won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2002 and the Abu Ghraib investigation was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting in 2005. The Homeland Security contracting investigations with Robert O’Harrow Jr. won the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for large newspapers. The police shooting investigation received the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016.
Higham also is known for his reporting on the opioid epidemic. He and his colleagues spent six years investigating the epidemic. Their work, known as “The Opioid Files,” exposed the inner workings of the companies that fueled the crisis and is credited with forming the foundation for the largest civil action in American history. The companies paid $50 billion to settle legal claims that they ignored federal drug control laws. Higham and his Washington Post colleagues also teamed up with Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney to produce Crime of the Century, a two-part HBO investigation into the forces that fueled the epidemic.
Higham later teamed up with Lenny Bernstein at the Washington Post and Bill Whitaker and producers Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower at 60 Minutes for additional investigations into the opioid industry. Their work received an Emmy, a Peabody, a Columbia duPont, and an Edward R. Murrow award. More recently, he worked with Whitaker and producers Graham Messick and Jack Weingart on an investigation into the Mexican drug cartels and the scourge of fentanyl in the U.S.
Higham also co-authored two books with his longtime Washington Post colleague, Sari Horwitz. They wrote Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery. The non-fiction book chronicles the 2001 disappearance of Washington, D.C. intern Chandra Levy, the botched murder investigation, and the frenzied, misguided media coverage of the case. The book was a 2011 finalist for the Edgar Award, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. The New York Times called Finding Chandra “an impressive feat of reporting and storytelling, full of the kind of plot elements that seem unbelievable and are made all the more engrossing because they’re true.”
Higham and Horwitz also co-authored the critically acclaimed book, American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry. Bob Woodward called the book “an eye-opening, shocking, and deeply documented investigation of the opioid crisis by two great reporters.”
Early life
Born in Queens, N.Y., Higham grew up on Long Island. He is the son of a New York City homicide detective stationed in the Fort Apache precinct in the South Bronx and an airline secretary and homemaker from Winthrop, Mass. He graduated from Stony Brook University with a B.A. in history and an M.S. from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with high honors. Higham also earned an A.S. in criminal justice at Suffolk County Community College.
Higham began his journalism career as the editor of his college newspaper, The Stony Brook Press. He then worked as a news clerk for Newsday and as a stringer and copyboy for The New York Times. After graduating from Columbia, he worked at the Allentown Morning Call, the Miami Herald, and The Baltimore Sun.
Scott Higham joined The Washington Post in 2000 and conducted numerous investigations for the news organization, including an examination of the D.C. foster care system, abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and waste and fraud in Homeland Security contracting. He was part of a team of reporters that investigated police-involved shootings in the U.S. The foster care series with Sari Horwitz andSarah Cohen won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2002 and the Abu Ghraib investigation was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting in 2005. The Homeland Security contracting investigations with Robert O’Harrow Jr. won the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for large newspapers. The police shooting investigation received the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016.
Higham also is known for his reporting on the opioid epidemic. He and his colleagues spent six years investigating the epidemic. Their work, known as “The Opioid Files,” exposed the inner workings of the companies that fueled the crisis and is credited with forming the foundation for the largest civil action in American history. The companies paid $50 billion to settle legal claims that they ignored federal drug control laws. Higham and his Washington Post colleagues also teamed up with documentarian Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney to produce Crime of the Century, a two-part HBO investigation into the forces that fueled the epidemic.
Higham later teamed up with Bill Whitaker and producers Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower at 60 Minutes for additional investigations into the opioid industry. Their work received an Emmy, a Peabody, a Columbia duPont, and an Edward R. Murrow award. More recently, he worked with Whitaker and producers Graham Messick and Jack Weingart on an investigation into the Mexican drug cartels and the scourge of fentanyl in the U.S.
Higham also co-authored two books with his longtime Washington Post colleague, Sari Horwitz. They wrote Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery. The non-fiction book chronicles the 2001 disappearance of Washington, D.C. intern Chandra Levy, the botched murder investigation, and the frenzied, misguided media coverage of the case. The book was a 2011 finalist for the Edgar Award, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. The New York Times called Finding Chandra “an impressive feat of reporting and storytelling, full of the kind of plot elements that seem unbelievable and are made all the more engrossing because they’re true.”
Higham and Horwitz also co-authored the critically acclaimed book, American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry. Bob Woodward called the book “an eye-opening, shocking, and deeply documented investigation of the opioid crisis by two great reporters.”
Early life
Born in Queens, N.Y., Higham grew up on Long Island. He is the son of a New York City homicide detective stationed in the Fort Apache precinct in the South Bronx and an airline secretary and homemaker from Winthrop, Mass. He graduated from Stony Brook University with a B.A. in history and an M.S. from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with high honors. Higham also earned an A.S. in criminal justice at Suffolk County Community College.
Higham began his journalism career as the editor of his college newspaper, The Stony Brook Press. He then worked as a news clerk for Newsday and as a stringer and copyboy for The New York Times. After graduating from Columbia, he worked at the Allentown Morning Call, the Miami Herald, and The Baltimore Sun.