Investigative Reporter & Feature Writer for The Atlantic, 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Caitlin Dickerson is an award-winning journalist whose reporting has sparked policy change and brought global attention to some of the world’s most pressing humanitarian issues. With a Pulitzer Prize, Peabody Award, and Edward R. Murrow Award to her name, she brings unmatched credibility and depth to the stage. Her keynote presentations blend powerful storytelling with sharp analysis, helping audiences understand the real human impact of war, displacement, and systemic inequality. Event planners seeking a speaker who can inform, inspire, and move audiences to think critically will find an exceptional choice in Dickerson.
Caitlin Dickerson: Focusing on migrant numbers alone is misleading
"Band-Aid" Policies: Caitlin Dickerson on the Expiration of Title 42
Caitlin Dickerson Demo Day 2022
More than 80 million people have been forced from their homes worldwide by conflicts, climate change, persecution or destitution—a number that grows every day. From Warsaw, Poland, which has accepted more Ukrainian refugees fleeing war than any city in the world, to dangerous camps in Northern Mexico where asylum seekers wait to enter the United States, Dickerson’s on-the-ground reporting highlights the vulnerability and complexity of life on the move, which often exacerbates pre-existing inequality. As she wrote for The Atlantic, “Being forced from one’s home causes irrevocable harm to anyone who experiences it… Some find stability—and, if buffeted by the right passport, family connections, or luck, can even find greater prosperity. But that is no replacement for what they have lost.”
In this powerful talk, Dickerson shares stories from the frontlines of global displacement, offering a rare, human-centered view of the migration crisis. She challenges audiences to confront the moral and political questions surrounding national borders, identity, and belonging. Listeners will come away with a deeper understanding of the lived realities behind headlines, the systems that shape migration policy, and the urgent need for compassionate, informed responses in a rapidly shifting world.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Peabody Award, and Edward R. Murrow Award, Caitlin Dickerson engages audiences on the power of journalism as a check against systemic inequality, telling stories of remarkable resilience and hope from the front lines of the world’s refugee crisis.
From Ukraine to Romania to Guatemala, Caitlin Dickerson has spent years covering people forced to live on the move for some of the nation’s foremost news outlets. On stage, she dispels common myths about the forcibly displaced, and breaks down the seemingly complex forces that influence their life trajectories—from policy, to rhetoric and public sentiment.
Dickerson conveys the human stories behind the growing global refugee crisis. Her audiences walk away with a deeper understanding of how war and other forms of insecurity that expel people from their homes exacerbate pre-existing inequality.
The Atlantic staff writer has broken stories that have led policies to be reversed and lives to change. She won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for her September 2022 cover story, “We Need to Take Away Children.” Previously, Dickerson won Peabody and Edward R. Murrow awards for her investigative reporting for NPR. As a reporter for The New York Times, she wrote frequent front page stories revealing government policies and practices that put vulnerable communities at further risk.
It was a terrifically successful event. The audience was deeply moved by Caitlin’s presentation and she was incredibly giving of her time. Thank you to the WWSG event coordinator for very professional and smooth process. I hope you are as pleased as we are on how this all went. We look forward to working with WWSG in the future.
Potter College of Arts and Letters Cultural Enhancement Series
Hearing how Caitlin frames the issues and speaks about them with such clarity is just deeply impactful.
UC College of the Law
