Tessa Duvall, the public affairs editor at the Lexington Herald-Leader, has been chosen as the winner of the College Heights Herald Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism for 2024-25.
The award will be presented to Duvall at the WKU Student Publications Centennial Celebration on April 25-26, marking a century of excellence for WKU’s flagship student-run publications, the College Heights Herald and the Talisman.
Duvall, a 2013 WKU graduate who served as editor-in-chief of the College Heights Herald in Fall 2012, was a double Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 – breaking news and public service – for her work covering the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor and its aftermath for The Courier Journal. She also contributed to the coverage of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s controversial pardons during his last days in office, for which The Courier Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news in 2020.
Duvall was promoted to public affairs editor at the Herald-Leader in 2024 by executive editor Rick Green, who had also been her editor when he led The Courier Journal from 2018-2021. She had been at the Herald-Leader since 2022, serving as Frankfort Bureau chief.
Duvall began her professional career in 2014 at the Midland Daily News in Texas, where she covered education, and worked at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, covering juvenile justice, from 2015-2019. She joined The Courier-Journal as an investigative reporter in 2019.
Duvall is the 72nd winner of the College Heights Herald Award, which honors alumni of WKU Student Publications who have made significant contributions to journalism and built a reputation for excellence in journalism.
Those wishing to attend the Centennial Weekend celebration, during which the Herald Award will be presented, can register by no later than April 4 at https://alumni.wku.edu/centennialweekend.
WKU Student Publications is celebrating a century of excellence, with the Talisman founded in 1924 as a yearbook and the College Heights Herald publishing its first edition on Jan. 29, 1925. It is one of the most honored student-run media groups in the country, amassing 50 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker awards, the highest honor in student media, since its first in 1978 for Talisman and in 1981 for the College Heights Herald. Since then, the Herald has won 25 Pacemakers; Talisman, 22; Cherry Creative, 1; and Cherry along with Student Publications Advertising, 2.