New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Lelyveld and Village Voice reporter Jennifer Gonnerman received prestigious awards from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism on May 15, in ceremonies taking place at the University.

"This year's award winners come from two of New York's best-known newspapers," said Tom Goldstein, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism. "We are delighted to recognize Joe Lelyveld and Jennifer Gonnerman for their accomplishments and are grateful for the contributions they make to the great range of reporting in this media capital."

The Columbia Journalism Award, "to honor singular journalistic performance in the public interest," is the highest honor awarded by the faculty of the Journalism School. It was presented to Joseph Lelyveld, executive editor of The New York Times since July 1994. Prior to that he served as managing editor (1990-1994), and as foreign editor (1987-1989), and has been a Times correspondent in London, New Delhi, Hong Kong and Washington, and served twice as correspondent in South Africa.

He has been a staff writer and columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book on South Africa, Move Your Shadow, which also won awards from The Los Angeles Times, the Overseas Press Club and the Sidney Hillman Foundation. A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, Lelyveld has received numerous awards for his reporting, including two George Polk Memorial Awards, and has held a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Mike Berger Award was presented to Jennifer Gonnerman, who has written about the criminal justice system for the Village Voice since 1997, for her piece, "Life on the Outside," a report on a seldom-seen world of New York: seven generations of one family coming to grips with the legacy of imprisonment. In the article, Gonnerman follows the story of Elaine Bartlett, a woman imprisoned for 16 years for a first-time drug offense, her release and her return to her family. The complex, informative and moving story is a tragic and yet never condescending portrait of how imprisonment affects the families of the convicts.

Gonnerman will receive $1,000 in the annual competition, named for the legendary Times reporter whose stories reflected his deep interest in reporting on the lives of ordinary citizens in New York City. The prize was created in 1960, a year after Mr. Berger's death, by Louis Schweitzer, a New York industrialist and admirer of his writing.

Gonnerman has received the New York Press Club's Gold Typewriter Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Best Reporting Award from the Deadline Club and New York City Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and is a three-time winner of the Front Page Award, given by the Newswomen's Club of New York.

She has been a finalist for both the Livingston Award and the National Magazine Award, and in1999 received a Media Fellowship from the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture of the Open Society Institute. Her work has appeared in The New York Observer, Newsday, New York, The Nation, and many other publications. She studied at Cambridge University and received a B.A. in English literature from Columbia University.