Mark Schleifstein

Mark Schleifstein is the environment reporter for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, and leader of its Louisiana Coastal Reporting Team.

In 2017, he was awarded the U.S. Water Prize by the U.S. Water Alliance for his career reporting on water and the environment.
His stories on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil spill were among The Times-Picayune work honored with the 2010 Edward J. Meeman Award for environmental reporting from the Scripps-Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards program.

He is the co-author of the December 2008 series, “Losing Louisiana,” explaining the role of global warming, sea level rise and subsidence on the future of the Louisiana coastline. He also was co-author of a March 2007 series “Last Chance: The Fight to Save a Disappearing Coast,”, which won the 2008 Communications Award of the National Academy of Sciences and the 2007 and John B. Oakes Prize for Environmental Reporting from Columbia University.

Schleifstein's reporting on Katrina was among the newspaper's stories honored with two 2006 Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service and Breaking News Reporting and the George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. He's also the co-author with John McQuaid of the 2006 book "Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms," about Katrina. Stories he wrote on coastal science issues were honored in 2006 with a special award from the American Geophysical Union.
He’s also co-author of the 2002 series, "Washing Away," which warned that much of New Orleans could be flooded by hurricane storm surge because levees were too low and subject to overtopping. The series won awards from the National Hurricane Conference and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

He also was co-author of the 1996 series, "Oceans of Trouble: Are the World's Fisheries Doomed?", which won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Two other series he co-authored were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize: , "Home Wreckers: How the Formosan termite is devastating New Orleans," published in 1998, finalist for national reporting; and "Louisiana in Peril," published in 1991, finalist for explanatory journalism.

In 2011, he was honored by the Press Club of New Orleans with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Schleifstein was a three-time president of the organization.

Schleifstein is on the board of advisers of SciLine, a service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that provides journalists links to credible scientists on demand and on deadline. He’s a founding member and a former member of the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists. He’s also a member of the board of directors of Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation in Metairie, La.