The Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage is designed to honor a journalist whose body of work is distinguished by insight and impact through engaging features on LGBTQ+ individuals, the LGBTQ+ community or LGBTQ+ issues.
The award is named for the pseudonym Edythe Eyde used for her pioneering publication, Vice Versa, which she had to hand deliver to avoid running afoul of laws on the books that made it illegal to send material about lesbians through the mail. In the 1950s she wrote under with the pen name Lisa Ben for The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine.
Lisa Ben was inducted into the NLGJA Journalists Hall of Fame in 2010 for her work that paved the way for many LGBTQ journalists to follow.
This Year’s Winner
Stefanie Loh
Stefanie Loh began her career covering college football for media organizations in West Virginia at The Dominion Post, in Pennsylvania at The Patriot-News and in California at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Next, Loh became a sports reporter for The Seattle Times, covering Washington State football before she began following the Seattle Seahawks. She later worked as the Time’s assistant sports editor. Having covered major teams from coast to coast, she is a past president of the Football Writers Association of America and the Association for Women in Sports Media.
Loh ultimately became the assistant managing editor at The Seattle Times, where she oversees the digital operation, features, Pacific Northwest magazine and staff development. As the features editor from 2019-2024, Loh worked to increase coverage of food, outdoors, the arts, communities and culture in Western Washington, and was one of the driving forces behind The Seattle Times’ 2024 package that recognized 50 influential LGBTQ+ leaders who shaped Washington state — a project the newsroom took on to commemorate 50 years of Seattle Pride. She currently serves on the national board of the Society for Features Journalists.
Past Award Winners
Scott Evans
Scott Evans is the recipient of the 2024 Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage. Evans began his career as the youngest person ever to host and emcee the NBA's Indiana Pacers and the WNBA's Indiana Fever games. Next, he became a reporter for multiple...
Lauren McGaughy
Lauren McGaughy is the winner of the 2024 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ+ Coverage. McGaughy is an investigative reporter and editor for The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration of NPR member stations in Texas. Her specialty areas include criminal justice, governmental...
Imara Jones
Imara Jones is the recipient of the 2023 Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage. Imara Jones, whose work has won Emmy and Peabody Awards, is the creator of TransLash Media, a cross-platform, non-profit journalism and narrative organization, which produces...
David Crary
Award winning journalist David Crary is the recipient of the 2023 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ+ Coverage, which honors journalists who consistently bring stories of the LGBTQ+ community to life in mainstream media outlets. “David Crary has consistently produced...
Chuck Culpepper
Chuck Culpepper is the recipient of the 2022 Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage. Culpepper covers national college sports, golf, international sports and some tennis for The Washington Post. He wrote previously for Sports On Earth/USA Today, The...
Tamron Hall
Award-winning journalist and talk show host Tamron Hall is the 2022 recipient of the Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. An accomplished and award-winning journalist, Tamron Hall hosts the nationally syndicated daytime talk show, “Tamron Hall.” In addition, Hall...
Tre’vell Anderson
Tre'vell Anderson is the recipient of the 2021 Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage. Anderson is the Editor-At-Large for Tornoto’s Xtra Magazine and co-host of two podcasts, “What A Day'' and “FANTI.” Before joining Xtra Magazine, Anderson served as the...
Jonathan Capehart
The Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart was the recipient of the 2019 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart is an opinion writer for and a member of The Washington Post editorial board. He also hosts...
Claudia Eller
Claudia Eller was the recipient of the 2019 Lisa Ben Award. She is the editor-in-chief of Variety. Eller is among the best known and most respected journalists in the entertainment industry. She came to Variety from The Los Angeles Times, where she spent 20 years as a...
Lydia Polgreen
HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen was the recipient of the 2018 Randy Shilts Award for LGBTQ Coverage. She was named editor-in-chief in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at The New York Times, where she most recently led an initiative to expand its...
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
Stand proud with NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.