A stylish writer with a humanizing touch on any issue, public or personal, Ellen Goodman is an American original.

Her abundant talents&mdashintellect, wit, style, news judgment&mdashset her apart with an élan uniquely her own. Her Pulitzer Prize winning commentary appears in more than 450 newspapers, making her one of the two most syndicated columnists in the United States.

One of those rare writers and thinkers who senses emerging shifts in our public and private lives, Goodman alters perceptions of confounding issues. &ldquoShe takes current events and sees their universal truths,&rdquo says the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot .

Goodman&rsquos first job was at Newsweek as a researcher at a time when only men became writers. She landed a job as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press in 1965 and, in 1967, for The Boston Globe where she began writing her column. Her column was syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group beginning in 1976.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary, Goodman has won many other awards, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award in 1980. She received the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in1988. In 1993, at its Seventh Annual Exceptional Merit Media Award Ceremony, The National Women&rsquos Political Caucus gave her the President&rsquos Award. In 1994, the Women&rsquos Research & Education Institute presented her with its American Woman Award.