The winner of 2008's inaugural The MOLLY National Journalism Prize, administered by The Texas Observer and named in honor of former Observer editor Molly Ivins, is Diane Suchetka, a reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. Before joining The Plain Dealer in June 2004, Suchetka spent 19 yars with The Charlotte Observer, where she was one of a group of reporters to win the Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Award for a series of stories on flaws in the administration of the death penalty.
Suchetka followed a young man from inner city Cleveland as he struggled to earn his high school equivalency degree.
Diane graduated from Kent State University's journalism school with a bachelor's degree in 1979 and a master's degree in 1988. In her spare time she runs, tries to write fiction and is putting together her first documentary film.
