Cheryl W. Thompson, an investigative reporter, came to The Post in 1997 and has written extensively about immigration, government and crime, including a two-part series on the tracing of guns used to kill police officers, which won several honors, including an Emmy award in 2011.

She also has reported on a Prince George’s County, MD official who awarded millions of dollars in contracts to his friends, who did little or no work. The stories prompted investigations, which ended with an indictment of the official and several others. The official, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced in 2011 to seven years in federal prison.

Cheryl also served as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.

Her other work includes a three-part series on the lack of oversight of physicians by state medical boards, and a four-part series that she co-authored on D.C. police homicide investigations. The series prompted city leaders to overhaul homicide investigations and led to the creation of a criminal investigator’s training academy. She also was part of the reporting team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

A Chicago native, Cheryl has a bachelor’s degree in speech communication and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown and Howard universities.

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