Andrea is a two-time Pulitzer winning journalist who has documented the lives of poor Americans, Muslim immigrants and other people on the margins of power. She is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of Invisible Child, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. She is also the recipient of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, a George Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and was awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

In 2023 and 2024, Andrea was a Writer in Residence at Princeton University, teaching creative nonfiction. In 2015, she was awarded Columbia University’s Medal for Excellence, given to one alumnus under the age of 45. She has also received honorary doctorates from Occidental College and from Niagara University, which cited her “courage, perseverance, and a commitment to fairness for those without a public voice rarely demonstrated among writers today.”

Andrea is a literary ambassador for Freedom Reads, which brings libraries to prisons, and a proud, longtime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She came to The Times from The Miami Herald, where she covered crime, immigration and Latin American politics. Raised in Washington, D.C. by a Chilean mother and an American father, she earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Awards & Honors

Pulitzer Prize General Nonfiction 2022

J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize 2022

Helen Bernstein Book Award 2022

Gotham Book Prize 2022

Goddard Riverside Prize 2022

Pulitzer Prize Feature Writing 2007

George Polk Award Local Reporting 2014

David Aronson Award Social Justice Reporting 2014

Scripps Howard Award Human Interest Reporting 2014

Society of Professional Journalists Feature Reporting 2013

American Society of Newspaper Editors Award Diversity Writing 2007

Overseas Press Club Best Magazine Reporting from Abroad 2007

University of Niagara Honorary Doctorate 2014

Columbia University Medal for Excellence 2015

Occidental College Honorary Doctorate 2017

Fellowships & Grants

New America Emerson Fellow 2014 - 2016

Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Journalist 2014 & 2016

Columbia Population Research Center Visiting Scholar 2016 & 2017

Whiting Foundation Creative Writing Nonfiction Grant 2018

MacDowell John S. Carroll Fellow 2016 & Artist in Residence 2018

Yaddo Artist in Residence 2016 & 2019

Marble House Project Artist in Residence 2014

Logan Nonfiction Program Fellow 2019