Patricia Callahan has been an investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune since 2004. Her work has won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, and has prompted changes in laws.

At the Tribune, Callahan has reported on some of Illinois’ biggest companies, including Boeing and Kraft Foods. She and a colleague investigated the nation’s largest airport expansion program and raised questions about the safety and viability of the project. She and that colleague also uncovered $48 million in cost overruns at another construction project at O’Hare International Airport.

Before joining the Tribune, Callahan was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Based in the Journal’s Chicago Bureau, she reported on fraud at pharmaceutical and medical-device companies.

Previously, Callahan was a lead writer and reporter on the Denver Post team covering the Columbine High School shootings. The Post won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for its Columbine coverage. Callahan’s stories on shootings by Denver police officers led to changes in how such shootings are investigated. 

She graduated with highest distinction from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1993. As a Henry Luce Scholar in Bangkok, she investigated the trafficking of children for prostitution in Thailand.

Callahan lives in Park Ridge, Ill., with her husband, Scott Kilman, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and their daughter, Helen.