Kate Woodsome
Photo by Marvin Joseph
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kate Woodsome studies the relationship between mental health and democracy. As a writer, filmmaker and reformer, she is illuminating the social and political forces — and narratives — that keep people isolated and unwell. Why? Because she believes an educated, empathetic electorate can create the conditions for collective wellbeing.
Woodsome’s work has three facets. She writes Invisible Threads, a rare weekly newsletter dedicated to uncovering the ties between the health of our minds and our body politic. You can find that at katewoodsome.substack.com. Woodsome is a Senior Fellow with
Georgetown University’s research and design unit, The Red House. There, she’s focused on a projected centered on intergenerational trauma and wellbeing. And finally, Woodsome is a systems-thinking strategist and trauma-informed workshop facilitator, helping individuals, communities and organizations to identify the sources and storylines impeding trust, understanding and collaboration to achieve common goals.
Previously with The Washington Post, Woodsome was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for covering the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She pioneered a mental health column and managed a short documentary film unit, too. As an editor, journalist and producer, Woodsome also has been honored with the Ben Bradlee Award for Courage in Journalism, an Edward R. Murrow Award and honors from the White House News Photographers Association.
She left The Post in Dec. 2023, no longer willing to normalize the trauma, burnout and moral injury that pervades the industry. This clarifies efforts Woodsome has pursued for more than two decades — from reporting on an authoritarian regime in post-genocide Cambodia, to the decline of democracy in Hong Kong, to the 2021 U.S. insurrection.