photo by: Associated Press

Martin Baron, left, executive editor of The Washington Post, speaks with David Shribman, executive editor of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, at the National First Amendment Conference in Pittsburgh on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018.

The University of Kansas will honor Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, for outstanding work in journalism with the William Allen White Foundation National Citation.

Baron will accept the award at KU on April 16, William Allen White Day. He will give a speech at 3 p.m. in the Kansas Union ballroom, which will be free and open to the public.

Baron became executive editor of The Washington Post in 2013. The newsroom has over 800 journalists and has won nine Pulitzer Prizes under Baron’s leadership.

Before the Post, Baron was editor at The Boston Globe, during which time the Globe won six Pulitzer Prizes. One of these was the Pulitzer Prize for public service, given to the Globe for its investigation into clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. The Globe’s coverage of this scandal was portrayed years later in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.”

Baron will receive the award named after William Allen White, a KU graduate who went on to become editor of the Emporia Gazette and who was nationally known as a voice for middle America. KU’s School of Journalism is named after White.

“William Allen White used his words to work for his community and the world,” said Ann M. Brill, dean of the KU School of Journalism. “That’s the standard the trustees use to select the National Citation recipient. Throughout his career, Martin Baron has upheld that standard. His achievements speak loudly to the impact he has had on American life.”

Prior to the Post and Globe, Baron held editing positions at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald. In 2004, he was named Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation.

Past recipients of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation include Cokie Roberts, Leonard Pitts Jr., Walter Cronkite, Bob Woodward and Sally Buzbee.