Journalist Kate Woodsome studies the relationship between mental health and democracy. As a writer, filmmaker and reformer, she is exposing the social and political forces — and narratives — that keep people isolated and unwell. Why? Because she believes an educated, empathetic electorate can create the conditions for collective wellbeing. 

Woodsome writes Invisible Threads, a rare weekly newsletter uncovering the ties between personal and political health.  She is a Fellow with Georgetown University’s research and design unit, The Red House, working to transform cycles of intergenerational trauma into cycles of intergenerational wellbeing. Finally, Woodsome is a narrative reformer, developing trauma-informed workshops to equip storytellers — and the people they feature — with resilience-building tools so they can feel safer and more empowered than exploited and depleted. This clarifies efforts Woodsome has pursued for more than two decades — from reporting on an authoritarian regime in post-genocide Cambodia, to the decline of democracy in Hong Kong, to the 2021 U.S. insurrection. 

Previously with The Washington Post, Woodsome won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with colleagues covering the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. She also pioneered a mental health column and managed a short documentary film unit. Woodsome has been honored with the Ben Bradlee Award for Courage in Journalism, an Edward R. Murrow Award and honors from the White House News Photographers Association.