Alumna Gives Advice to Students Pursuing Journalism - Georgetown College

Mary Jordan (C'83) credits her career in journalism to her Georgetown education, including Fr. Healy’s poetry instruction and the encouragement he offered to pursue her writing. Most recently, Jordan and her husband, Kevin Sullivan, worked as The Washington Post’s co-bureau chiefs in London.

Jordan joined The Washington Post in 1984 after earning a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. After working on staff for the paper’s Style, Metro, and National sections, she became a foreign correspondent. She and her husband worked as the Post’s co-bureau chiefs in Tokyo from 1995 to 1999 and in Mexico City from 2000 to 2005. They won the George Polk Award in 1998 for coverage of the Asian Financial Crisis and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for their coverage of the Mexican criminal justice system. As a way of focusing her writing, Jordan picks a theme for a year. One of her most rewarding and challenging trips was to Pakistan, where she witnessed and wrote about women’s struggles.

In this clip, Jordan gives students interested in a career in journalism advice about the realities of working in the ever-changing industry. Video and text courtesy of the Witness to History project. Photos by Phil Humnicky.