photo by: Contributed

Susan Page

This year’s William Allen White National Citation will go to the Washington bureau chief of USA TODAY.

Susan Page, a Wichita native who is also a best-selling author, will accept the award in person on April 9 at KU. Named in honor of a famous Kansas newspaperman, the award recognizes individuals for outstanding journalistic service. The trustees of the William Allen White Foundation select a winner each year.

Page will give an address at 3 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

“It’s truly an honor to present the William Allen White National Citation to Susan,” said Scott Reinardy, interim dean of KU’s School of Journalism, in a news release Friday. “Her unwavering dedication to journalism reflects the ideals emblematic of William Allen White. At a time when covering national politics is increasingly complex and contentious, Susan continues to deliver fair, credible, fact-based journalism. Her work exemplifies the highest standards of our profession.”

Page has covered 12 presidential campaigns and eight White House administrations and has interviewed the past 10 presidents (three of them after they left the office), according to the release. In 2020, she moderated the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, the only print reporter ever to be a solo moderator for the Commission on Presidential Debates.

“As a fourth-generation Kansan who started in journalism working on the mimeographed newspaper at Robinson Junior High School in Wichita, William Allen White has been a lodestar,” Page said in the release. “Receiving the medal struck in his name is the honor of a lifetime. Much of journalism has been revolutionized since he was editing the Emporia Gazette, from the pace of newsgathering to the explosion in ways it’s delivered.”

“But the job of a journalist – to shine a light on good and evil, to inform the democracy, to hold the powerful to account – is precisely the same. For that sacred task, William Allen White remains an inspiration and an aspiration.”

Page is a graduate of Northwestern and Columbia universities and the mother of two sons. She is a former president of the White House Correspondents Association and the Gridiron Club, and she has won every journalism award given specifically for coverage of the presidency.

Her biographies include “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters,” “Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power,” and “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty.” Her fourth book, “The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand that Shaped History,” is being published by Harper in April.

Other notable recipients of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation include Lester Holt, the Marion County Record, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Martin Baron, Cokie Roberts, Leonard Pitts Jr., Candy Crowley, Seymour Hersh, Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, Bob Woodward, Molly Ivins, Gordon Parks and Bob Dotson.