Thought Leader: Margaret "Peggy" Engel

Margaret Engel is the director of the Alicia Patterson Journalism Foundation, which supports investigative journalists and photojournalists worldwide. She was the managing editor of the Newseum, the world's only interactive museum of news, and currently serves on the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism awards, and the Helen Hayes Awards board.

She is a former Washington columnist for Glamour Magazine and has written for Esquire, Air & Space magazine, and the Los Angeles Times. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times. She co-authored the play Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which premiered at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in March, 2010, starring Kathleen Turner and directed by David Esbjornson.

She co-authored with her twin sister, Allison, three editions of Food Finds: America's Best Local Foods and the People Who Produce Them, a compendium of regional food products that was published by HarperCollins. She and Allison appeared on the Today Show, Larry King, National Public Radio, and The Kitchen Sisters, talking about the superlative small food companies. They produce a television show (Food Finds) based on their book, which currently is in its seventh season on The Food Network. Engel has helped produce a history of groundbreaking newspaper editorials for the National Geographic Press as well as books for the New Yorker's Cartoon Bank.

Engel and her husband, Bruce Adams, traveled more than 60,000 miles together to write three other guidebooks about baseball in America for Fodor's/Random House. They also conducted a Smithsonian Institution study tour of baseball's minor leagues in North Carolina.

She grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

Margaret has written the essay, The Value of Character as part of the IVOH Voices & Values of Journalism Project - listen to and read the entire collection of essays here.

Peggy's recent work and related links: