Andrea Simakis
Andrea Simakis spent more than 20 years at The Plain Dealer covering everything from pop culture to wrongful convictions. Her work moved people to write an Ohio governor, earning a man an early release from prison, and prompted a local college to offer a scholarship in honor of forgotten women murdered by a serial killer.
Simakis was a Kiplinger Fellow at The Ohio State University and was chosen as one of 29 journalists worldwide to study at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. She is a frequent lecturer at Case Western Reserve University where she teaches courses on criticism and narrative non-fiction writing.
Her national awards include the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her magazine profile of a lawyer who defends abused and neglected children in juvenile court; a National Headliner Award for her profile of Cleveland playwright Eric Coble as he shepherded his first play to Broadway, and the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for her magazine narrative on the plight of a diesel mechanic whose one punch earned him two years in prison.
Recent Posts by Andrea Simakis
Case Closed
April 8, 2020 by Rachel Dissell, Andrea Simakis, Lynn Ischay, Ellen Stein Burbach, Kelley Benham French, Melodie Smith, Wendy Carr McManamon, Joel DowneyThis multipart series focuses on rape survivor Sandi Fedor’s efforts to track down the serial rapist who attacked her as she discovers that her trust has been betrayed by the indifference of an historically under-resourced Cleveland Police sex crimes unit. Judges praised the team for “successfully intertwining a visceral survivor’s point of view narrative with traditional investigative reporting.” They said the series “meticulously documents with photographs, video clips, audio recordings, public records, police documents, and prior investigative reporting” a “pattern of systemic police department failure dating back decades” which “enabled serial offenders like the man who attacked Sandi Fedor to evade justice for years.” Originally published in the Plain Dealer on September 29, 2019.
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