Congratulations to SFJ Hall of Fame inductees Lane DeGregory and Maria Carrillo!
HOORAY! Our first in-person Society for Features Journalism conference since the pandemic was a HUGE SUCCESS!
About 90 journalists gathered in Phoenix from Nov. 6-8 to soak up sunshine, camaraderie and high-caliber training on journalistic craft, and we’re all still buzzing with gratitude and inspiration.
From left: Maria Carrillo, Robert Morast, Laura Coffey and Lane DeGregory celebrate Maria and Lane's induction into the SFJ Hall of Fame on Nov. 6, 2025. Photo credit: Zineb Haddaji
There are almost too many highlights to share from our conference at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication — but one exciting moment deserves special attention. At our welcome reception, the Society for Features Journalism inducted Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lane DeGregory and veteran editor Maria Carrillo into the SFJ Hall of Fame. Only 29 people, including Lane and Maria, have received this honor since 1997.
What Lane and Maria have done for journalism — the positive impacts they’ve had and the legacies they’ve created — cannot be overstated. The whole SFJ board wanted to honor them for:
their tireless evangelism for the art of narrative nonfiction at newspapers,
the generosity of their time and energy teaching others,
the brilliance of their WriteLane podcast about craft,
and their incredible contributions to SFJ over the years.
Mike Wilson of The New York Times joined the Hall of Fame induction ceremony via video to speak about working with Lane DeGregory. Photo by Zineb Haddaji
Editor Mike Wilson of The New York Times patched in via Zoom to speak about Lane during the Hall of Fame ceremony, and editor Robert Morast of the San Francisco Chronicle spoke about Maria.
Then Lane and Maria spoke about one another and shared their origin story, which began more than 25 years ago. Plenty of people in the room seemed to get something in their eyes as all of this went down. (We’ll try to remember to scatter some tissue boxes around the room at the next Hall of Fame induction!)
Maria Carrillo and Lane DeGregory in 2000 when they worked together at The Virginian-Pilot. Photo courtesy of Lane DeGregory
Later on during the conference, Lane and Maria continued to help SFJ members learn and grow by speaking during two sessions. One panel discussion along with author, journalist and professor Mallary Tenore Tarpley was focused on elevating journalistic craft.
Another keynote session served as a case study of Lane’s Pulitzer-winning story “The Girl in the Window.”
Both sessions were excellent — and, as usual, loaded with practical tips that everyone in attendance could try at home.
HUGE CONGRATS to Lane and Maria. You two are the best of the best!
Please keep reading for essays written about Lane and Maria by their colleagues. And click here to read an essay by Lane and Maria about why features journalism matters.
Laura T. Coffey is the immediate past president of the Society for Features Journalism and a longtime editor and feature writer. She’s also the author of the bestselling nonfiction book “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts.” Connect with Laura here.
SFJ board member Sue Campbell introduces a panel discussion with Lane DeGregory, Mallary Tenore Tarpley and Maria Carrillo at the Society for Features Journalism conference at ASU's Cronkite School in Phoenix on Nov. 7, 2025. Photo by Zineb Haddaji
Maria Carrillo speaks during a keynote session with Lane DeGregory at the SFJ conference in Phoenix on Nov. 7, 2025. Photo by Zineb Haddaji
These essay were written for the SFJ 2025 conference program book.
Maria Carillo, the journalist whisperer
By Anita Hassan
Those who’ve worked in a newsroom with Maria know that her office door was rarely closed — but also rarely empty. Reporters at the Tampa Bay Times, Houston Chronicle and The Virginian-Pilot came and went in a steady stream.
Sometimes they weren’t even people she edited, just colleagues who wandered in because they knew it was a place of calm, where someone would listen without judgment and help them make sense of the chaos. She never turned anyone away.
Maria, who retired from the Tampa Bay Times in 2022, has always been the steady center — the person you go to when you’re lost in a story and need help finding your way back.
Whether a veteran with a Pulitzer on your resume or an intern, you could walk into her office with half an idea, trip over your own sentences and she’ll catch the thread buried inside your confusion. She’ll notice the small detail that becomes the heart of your story. She’ll follow you through every tangent, through the meandering interview notes and even the mind-numbing details. She’ll even read all 12 of your possible ledes before helping you refine the one that was hiding in plain sight all along.
There are editors who can smooth the edges and make the writing sound clean. But Maria can sense what you’re trying to achieve, often before you can. She doesn’t impose her voice, but rather, she helps you uncover your own.
It’s why so many reporters still call her for advice. In some ways, she’s become many journalists’ unofficial emergency contact.
Those types of relationships, and loyalty, come from knowing people, not just their work. She notices the small things that reveal how you think, what drives you and what keeps you up at night. She understands your doubts and frustrations, even the ones that have nothing to do with the story in front of you.
Working with her doesn’t just make you a stronger writer, it teaches you how to stand taller and realize a truer version of yourself.
Anita Hassan is the senior news producer at HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” who spent a lot of time in Maria’s Houston Chronicle office.
Lane DeGregory, the people’s storyteller
By Leonora LaPeter Anton
Lane DeGregory, the people’s storyteller, chronicles the richly textured lives of everyday people.
The distinguishing factor in her work, always, is heart — hers, the subject’s and the reader’s.
For more than three decades, most of them at the Tampa Bay Times, she has taken us on journeys, unpacking — scene by scene — the lives and lessons of people on the perimeter.
From the 99–year-old man still sweeping the floors of a seafood warehouse to the teen boy in foster care who stands up in church and asks to be adopted, Lane’s stories have touched readers worldwide. That last story prompted 10,000 strangers to come forward hoping to adopt him, and led to the adoption of hundreds of children.
Lane’s best known story is about a child so severely neglected in her formative years that the authorities who found her called her a feral child, more animal than human. “The Girl in the Window,” which narrated the girl’s rescue and adoption by a new family, has been read by millions around the world. It won Lane a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2009.
Her stories sparkle. They stun. They make you cry. And ultimately, they inspire. It’s a quality found in the greatest of writers.
And if you were to sit next to Lane at the Tampa Bay Times for two decades, you would come to believe she is tireless. She would inspire you over and over to keep pursuing your dreams. She lacks the ability to give anything but her best — all the time.
At a time when newspapers are collapsing and the very notion of a free and honest press is under assault, we desperately need journalists who tell Americans’ stories honestly and in depth, with no agenda other than to reveal the truths in their lives. We need someone to find out what is happening to regular people.
Lane is best suited to do this. People trust Lane. They open up to her. She, in turn, understands them. She captures people’s lives with empathy, helping the world understand the secret hearts of their neighbors.
Leonora LaPeter Anton is a Pulitzer prize-winning writer who worked with Lane DeGregory for many years at the Tampa Bay Times.
