Kathie Miller

NPR's Creative Services team at the 2011 DC ADDY Awards (Top image, l to r): Betsy Martin, Katie Burk and Kathie Miller

NPR's Creative Services & Branding team was honored with four ADDYs earlier this month recognizing creative excellence in the art of advertising and marketing. These awards from the DC Ad Club mark the first step in the American Advertising Federation's three-tiered national competition.

NPR CREATIVE SERVICES & BRANDING HONORS FROM THE 2012 ADDYS

Gold ADDY: 2011 Holiday Cards and 2012 Wall Calendars

Silver ADDY: I Heart NPR campaign and AIGA DC Design Week materials

In addition, the 2012 NPR Wall Calendar and promotional postcards, both designed in-house, were highlighted in HOW Magazine's IN-HOWSE Design awards, in the category of "Entertainment" alongside work from ESPN and Disney.

"It's a thrill for us to be recognized for our work. Judges for these awards are design professionals, so we are truly excited when one of our projects gets an award," says Creative Services & Branding Director Kathie Miller.

NPR's own branding, image and design gurus — Kathie Miller, Betsy Martin and Katie Burk — play a significant role in bringing NPR to life through images, graphics and animation. The group is a full-service, in-house design studio that provides graphic design support to the entire organization. They also work closely with Barbara Sopato, Director of E-Commerce & Consumer Product, to develop NPR branded products for the NPR Shop and retail stores like Urban Outfitters.

Check out all of their award-winning work in the gallery below, some of which have made an appearance on 'This is NPR' before today:

The designers in Creative Services & Branding are complemented by other design professionals integrated into NPR's content development division. NPR's design teams work together as they face a common challenge in trying to establish and align a unique, recognizable, fluid visual identity for NPR. But, as NPR content has moved from voices heard on radios to multimedia build-outs on tablet screens, the visual images that define NPR have changed as well.

"With the proliferation of so many digital platforms—web sites, mobile apps, social media—NPR has a much stronger visual presence today than it did even just ten years ago," said Miller.

Check out some of the work these women are responsible for in the NPR Shop, where you can find all the best public radio swag from Nina Totin' Bags to gear for NPR's youngest fans.

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Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, at right, 2011.

Last night NPR Foreign Correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, recognizing individuals for an outstanding contribution to public radio.

"International reporters such as Lourdes Garcia-Navarro are dedicated journalists who are often in harm's way as they report from conflict areas, telling the story as it occurs and keeping us informed," said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, in the release announcing the award. "Ms. Garcia-Navarro's courage and determination in reporting represents the best of public media journalism and makes her truly deserving of the Edward R. Murrow Award."

In accepting her award, Lourdes recognized the courageous contributions of her overseas colleagues saying, "At its best we try to strip away the distortions and the lies, instead of repeating them."

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NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, at right, on assignment in Egypt

As one of the first reporters to enter Libya after the uprising began last year, Lourdes has served as a leader in Arab Spring reporting. Often at great personal risk, she spent months painting a deep and vivid portrait of a country at war with stunning insight, courage and humanity.

Later this week, Lourdes will be talking about her reporting experiences as well as her recent assignments in Israel with WNPR's Where We Live and in an interview with WBUR's Here and Now airing Wednesday, March 28 at 12:40 PM (ET).

Congratulations Lourdes!

Collaborative projects across NPR's Digital, News, Music, Multimedia and Mobile divisions received some prestigious honors recently for their outstanding design and overall excellence.

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The Communication Arts and the Society for News Design selected the NPR News iPad App as the winner in the 2012 Communication Arts Interactive Annual out of more than 1,200 entries. This is the second year in a row that NPR has received this honor alongside organizations like The Daily (News Corp's subscription news app for the iPad) and HBO.

David Wright, Chris Koth, Max Pfennighaus, Jennifer Sharp, Jennifer Oh, Jeremy Pennycook, Ben Hands and Constance Miller all earned credit for this accomplishment.

The Society for News Design's 2nd Annual Best of Digital Design competition recognized NPR with three Awards of Excellence as well as a Silver Medal. Only eight Silver Medals were awarded this year out of over 500 entries submitted across all categories. Check out all of the award-winning work below:

7 Billion And Counting: Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion

Silver Medal: Single-Subject Project—More than 50 million

Visualizing How a Population Grows to 7 Billion. The team: Adam Cole, Maggie Starbard, Melissa Fosythe, Andrew Prince, Alison Richards, Maria Godoy

Awards of Excellence: Single-Subject Projects—More than 50 million

Japan And Haiti: Picturing The Unimaginable

Japan and Haiti: Picturing the Unimaginable. The team: David Gilkey, Nelson Hsu, Mito Habe-Evans

Award of Excellence: Sector or Topic—More than 50 million

Infinite Player. The team: Michael Yoch, Constance Miller, Vincent Farquharson, Jared Biehler, Max Pfennighaus, Scott Vanderbilt, Stephanie Slobodan

NPR Music. Music and Digital media staffs (especially on Design/User Experience), as well as many across the organization.

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Congratulations to all of the NPR staff who made these projects possible!

NPR came away with nine honors in this year's "Eyes of History" contest, held annually by The White House News Photographers Association. NPR's distinctions include four first place awards for John Poole and David Gilkey, who was named Photographer of the Year by the WHNPA in the 2011.

The work of Claire O'Neill, Coburn Dukehart, John Poole and David Gilkey demonstrates NPR's expansion and innovation in the digital space. They were all recognized individually for excellence in still photography, video and/or new media in a competition known as one of the country's most prestigious showcases in visual journalism.

All of these awards represent the hard work and collaboration of reporters, editors, designers and producers as well as staff at Colorado Public Radio who co-produced David Gilkey's 'LifeQuest' story.

Check out all of NPR's 2012 awards and the recognized work in the photo, video and new media categories below.

While the NPR staff may not be strutting Hollywood's red carpet at the Oscars this Sunday, the Gracie Awards announcement has us rolling out our own red carpet to acknowledge our NPR colleagues' extraordinary work.

The Gracie Awards, given by the Alliance for Women and Media, were announced yesterday, and this year, NPR was honored with:

• Lourdes Garcia-Navarro won Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Reporter/Correspondent category for her coverage of the Arab Spring from Egypt to Libya. Doug Roberts served as editor.
• Ina Jaffe and editor Quinn O'Toole are the winners in the Outstanding Series category for Rising Violence at California Psychiatric Hospitals, which led to the passage of several pieces of legislation to better deal with the most aggressive patients.
• Morning Edition's Asma Khalid won Outstanding Soft News Feature for Lifting the Veil, a broadcast and multimedia exploration of women and their decision to remove their hijab.

Also honored with a Gracie is Trafficked, a Youth Radio production that aired on All Things Considered exploring child sex trafficking in Oakland, Calif. All Things Considered's Christopher Turpin and Graham Smith contributed to this honor.

The Gracies celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the industry, like these sassy women. A full list of this year's winners is available here.

Congratulations to all of the winners and those who contributed to these achievements!

The halls at NPR are decked with extra holiday cheer this week, thanks to a generous helping of recognition for outstanding digital and social media in 2011. Make sure these are on your list (...and check it twice):

- With thousands to chose from, iTunes set its ears on Fresh Air this year, hailing it the "Best Audio Podcast" in its year-end list. NPR's Planet Money and Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! also made the list of must-hear podcasts, along with public radio shows Selected Shorts and The Moth.

- NPR's Tumblr — which just reached 100,000 followers — was named Best Professional Tumblr by The Village Voice. Follow along!

- Facebook announced its "Fastest Growing Pages" for 2011, with NPR's Facebook page coming in at number three among news outlets worldwide.

And in case you missed it, NPR took home four EPPY awards last week for media-affiliated websites including the honors for Best Journalism Website, Best Animation on a Media-Affiliated Website, Best Enterprise/Investigative Video and Best Entertainment Blog.

Congratulations to all!

NPR was among the top winners yesterday, at the Editor & Publisher's annual EPPY Awards for media-affiliated websites. The EPPY Awards, now in their 16th year, recognize the best media websites internationally among newspapers, TV-cable, radio and magazines.

In total, NPR received four of the prestigious awards:

- NPR.org received an outstanding honor as it was selected as the Best Journalism Website among large-audience journalism websites.

- "Wanna Live Forever? Become A Noun," from the Krulwich Wonders blog, took home the award for Best Animation on a Media-Affiliated Website. The video chronicles the history of eponyms through a catchy little tune.

- "Brain Wars: How The Military Is Failing Its Wounded," NPR's joint investigation with ProPublica which uncovered the military's failure to diagnose, treat and document brain injuries, was recognized as the Best Enterprise/Investigative Video.

-The Monkey See pop culture blog, hosted by Linda Holmes, won for the Best Entertainment Blog with 250,000 to 1 million unique monthly visitors.

The NPR Music website; The Picture Show blog; " 'Suicide By Cop' Leads Soldier On Chase Of His Life" from the Brain Wars investigative series; David Gilkey, Quil Lawrence, Becky Lettenberger, Keith Jenkins' Bravo Company reports from Afghanistan; and NPR's political blogs and 2010 campaign coverage were also among the finalists in six additional categories, all deserving credit for incredible work.

The full list of EPPY winners includes Minnesota Public Radio, which also received high honors, winning Best Local Radio-Affiliated Website in the category for sites with 250,000-1 million monthly visitors.

Congratulations to all, as these honors reflect the collaborative effort and work of every department at NPR!

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Sylvia Poggioli is arguably one of public radio's most famous names; now, NPR's Senior European Correspondent can claim yet another title: Recipient of the 2011 Arthur Ross Award for Distinguished Reporting & Analysis on Foreign Affairs.

The award is presented by the American Academy of Diplomacy each year to journalists producing "the most compelling and insightful pieces concerning American diplomacy." A luncheon recognizing Sylvia and her fellow 2011 Arthur Ross Award winner took place yesterday at the State Department.

For nearly 30 years, Sylvia has reported from around the globe, most recently covering the aftermath of July's extremist attacks in Norway; the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis in Greece, Spain and Portugal; and Silvio Berlusconi's resignation as the prime minister of Italy.

Good luck to anyone trying to beat her in the "Who's-Got-The-Most-Stamps-On-Their-Passport?" game.

Congratulations, Sylvia!

NPR brought the heat to Philadelphia this weekend, winning a total of five honors at the 35^th annual National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair.

The awards were announced on Saturday, August 7, at a black tie gala recognizing journalism in radio, print, TV, public relations and digital media that best addresses the African and/or African-American experience.

Check out the winners:

• "A Year of Challenges: Haiti After the Quake" received recognition for Interactive News, produced by NPR's Digital and Multimedia teams
• Tell Me More won for best Public Affairs Program
• Michel Martin's "Can I Just Tell You?" commentaries took home the Radio Commentary award
• NPR National Desk reporter Allison Keyes for her feature "Donny Hathaway: Neglected Heart of Soul"
• NPR National Desk reporter Allison Keyes' "Remembering Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Height" for Long Form News (that's right, she won two!)

Teshima Walker, Executive Producer of Tell Me More, said that Michel and the show's staff are all delighted by the honors. "We like to believe that we work very hard to produce an enlightening and informative program that also entertains." She added that the awards "offer a vote of confidence for our efforts."

Three NPR member stations were also honored this weekend. WNYC New York, WBEZ Chicago and WUNC North Carolina each won four awards at the gala for sports, investigative, feature, news, documentary and public affairs reporting.

Allow me to do some quick calculations...(4 x 3) + 5 = 17 for public media in the 22 categories for radio. I think that's what they call "cleaning up."

More information about the awards is available in our media advisory, and details about Tell Me More's live broadcast from the convention can be found on the show's page at NPR.org.

Congratulations to all of the winners and everyone who worked to make these programs exceptional.

Earlier this year, NPR learned that Foreign Correspondent Julie McCarthy would be honored with a Gracie Award for her coverage of Pakistan.

Now is your chance to see her accept this prestigious award. On Monday, August 8 at 7 p.m., the Hallmark Movie Channel will be airing The Gracies ceremony, which are presented by The Alliance for Women in Media.

Julie will be in good company, after the jump check out the promo spot for the affair.

Emily Hellewell/NPR

This week a contingent from NPR and others from the public broadcasting community met up in New York City for the 2010 Peabody Award ceremony.

We told you before that NPR won Peabody Awards for Julie McCarthy's coverage of Pakistan and for two NPR News Investigations: Laura Sullivan's "Behind the Bail Bond System" and Joseph Shapiro's "Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes," a collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity. We also share the award with Youth Radio for the series "Trafficked", which was co-produced and broadcast by All Things Considered.

Emily Hellewell/NPR

NPR's Joseph Shapiro, Susanne Reber and Laura Sullivan following the Peabody Award ceremony.

At the awards ceremony earlier this week, there was a lot of love for public broadcasting. Of the 38 Peabody recipients, 19 went to public broadcasting. Half of the winners of broadcasting's top awards went to a documentary, special series, program, films, or feature that aired on public television or radio. It was a tremendous showing of the best public broadcasting has to offer.

Then Patrick Stewart took the stage. After the jump, a video of his thoughts on public broadcasting.

At NPR, until recently, there was a strong distinction between "radio" and "digital." But that distinction is increasingly blurred. Every morning, I listen to a different Member station on my iPhone. I think of that as "listening to the radio." But of course, I'm actually having a digital experience by listening to the stations' Internet streams. Our audience increasingly expects to find companion pieces to radio stories at npr.org and Member station websites. And, for a growing number of new NPR fans, their primary experience may be web based.

The extent of this change was clearly evident to me this past Saturday night, when I was honored to join a number of NPR's staffers at the White House News Photographers Association's Annual Awards Dinner. A radio organization at a news photographers dinner? Sounds a little funny, doesn't it? But, trust me, we weren't there just to observe.

NPR's photojournalists and multimedia producers, in partnership with our investigative and Planet Money teams, won seven first place awards, and multiple second and third place finishes. To be sure, this particular event was inspirational, but as importantly, it highlighted the leading edge of NPR's journalism: investigative and explanatory journalism and multimedia storytelling.

NAB Show

Rich Rarey and Mike Eskenazi, of NPR Labs, demonstrate to visitors at their NAB booth.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Except when the news is this good.

This past week, NPR Labs received the 2011 NAB Technology Innovation Award at the NAB show in Las Vegas. The show highlights various organizations that have contributed to the broadcast and entertainment industries – and this year, NPR is in the spotlight.

Among many leaders in the industry, NPR stands out with its innovative work in radio and the implementation of new projects in the realm of communication and media technology. NPR Labs, a part of NPR Distribution, is being recognized for their contributions and advancements to the world of broadcast technology. The research and development center is showcasing one of its new products at NAB: captioned radio featuring a dual-view car dashboard display.

The NPR News Investigation team is on a roll. On the heels of its recent IRE Award, the group has been honored with two awards from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

The annual Dart Awards recognize outstanding reporting that portrays traumatic events with accuracy, insight and sensitivity while illustrating the effects of trauma on victims' lives and the process of recovery from emotional trauma.

From the Dart Center's press release:

NPR and the Center for Public Integrity received the Dart Award for "Seeking Justice in Campus Rapes." (From NPR: Joseph Shapiro, correspondent; Robert Benincasa, computer-assisted reporting; Susanne Reber, editor. From CPI: Kristen Lombardi and Kristin Jones, reporters; David Donald, data editor; Gordon Witkin, supervising editor.) This series combined far-reaching investigative reporting with powerful personal stories to expose a pattern in which college students found responsible for sexual assaults face little punishment, while their victims receive little help.

Judges praised "Seeking Justice in Campus Rapes" for bringing to light a neglected issue with widespread impact and, at the same time, conveying the sheer power of human resilience and true agency of victims.

NPR and ProPublica received the Dart Award for "Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing its Wounded." (For NPR: Daniel Zwerdling, reporter; Susanne Reber, editor. For ProPublica: T. Christian Miller, reporter; Robin Fields, editor.) With great scope and depth, this far-reaching, comprehensive multimedia investigation delves into the ramifications of the signature wound of today's wars: traumatic brain injury (TBI). The investigation exposed that as many as 40% of soldiers mild TBI had gone undiagnosed, and that the Pentagon's health plan refused to cover the most proven method of treatment, leading to Congressional hearings and sweeping policy changes.

Judges called the series a "major piece of investigative journalism notable for its scope, depth and analysis." They commended it for "fulfilling journalism's promise as a pillar of democracy" and "fundamentally changing the way the public and policymakers understand TBI."

Congratulations again to the NPR I-Team, Center for Public Integrity, ProPublica and all of the 2011 Dart Award winners.

For more information on the Center and the awards, visit DartCenter.org.

An Associated Press article published last month highlighted that public media is building up its investigative reporting capacity ..."as newspapers and TV networks cut their staffs and cable television stations have filled their schedules with more opinion journalism."

NPR News' deep-digging efforts were honored today with a 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for "Prison Profiting: Behind Arizona's Immigration Law."

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NPR Investigations Correspondent Laura Sullivan

Reported by NPR Correspondent Laura Sullivan, "Prison Profiting" detailed gatherings that bring together state legislators with representatives of powerful corporations and associations, and how one organization facilitates the shaping of state laws with little scrutiny. In two reports that aired in October 2010 on the NPR newsmagazine Morning Edition, she revealed how Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce discussed the idea for the bill with a membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations – including the largest private prison company in the country – called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the secretive way ALEC allows companies to author "model bills" with the state legislators.

"Prison Profiting" was produced by Anne Hawke, and edited by Deputy Managing Editor of Investigations Susanne Reber and Senior National Editor Steven Drummond.

The judges praised the series by saying, "While most news outlets focused on the consequences of the bill that allowed police to lock up anyone they stop who cannot show proof of legal residency, NPR's investigation went behind the scenes. The judges thought NPR's decision to look at the law as a new business model made this entry the overwhelming winner in the category."

The IRE also named the NPR News Investigation Home or Nursing Home: America's Empty Promise to Give the Elderly and Disabled a Choice a finalist in the radio category. Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing the Wounded, an investigation from NPR News and ProPublica, was named a finalist in the digital category.

The IRE Award completes a hat trick of sorts for Sullivan and Drummond. They recently received a a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton Award and Peabody Award for their three-part investigative series "Behind the Bail Bond System" that revealed deep and costly flaws in the U.S. justice system's bail bond process.

Congratulations to all the winners for this well-deserved recognition of their difficult and important work. You can find more information on the IRE Awards at their website.