Business

Former AJC investigative editor recognized nationally for four-decade career

Lois Norder helped lead watchdog reporting at the AJC, exposing fraud and abuse.
Retired Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigations editor Lois Norder has been named the recipient of the 2025 Lawrence Minard Editor Award. (File/AJC)
Retired Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigations editor Lois Norder has been named the recipient of the 2025 Lawrence Minard Editor Award. (File/AJC)
2 hours ago

In what is one of the highest honors for business, financial and economic journalism editing, former Atlanta Journal-Constitution senior editor for investigations Lois Norder has been named the recipient of the 2025 Lawrence Minard Editor Award.

Norder, who retired earlier this year, is recognized for her four-decade career at newspapers in Atlanta; Fort Worth, Texas; and Iowa. Across these newsrooms, she directed investigations exposing fraud and abuse in housing, health care, education and the prison system. Her work led to changes in policy and criminal prosecutions.

The Minard accolade honors an editor whose work does not often receive public recognition. It was created in memory of Lawrence “Laury” Minard, founding editor of Forbes Global and a former final judge for the Gerald Loeb Awards.

It is awarded annually as part of the Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, which is considered the highest accolade in business journalism and recognizes reporting on business and finance that informs the private investor and the general public.

“Norder has shaped the careers of dozens of journalists and inspired newsroom-wide excellence,” the G. and R. Loeb Foundation Inc. said in its news release. “Her ability to lead with consistency, empathy and unwavering integrity exemplifies the values of the Minard Editor Award.”

Norder, who graduated from Drake University, led some of the AJC’s most ambitious projects after joining in August 2012. These include “Dangerous Dwellings” in 2022, with Willoughby Mariano, Alan Judd and Johnny Edwards, which exposed poor conditions in apartment complexes throughout metro Atlanta. A 2020 series, “Unprotected,” with Carrie Teegardin and Brad Schrade, revealed gaps in regulation and enforcement in the state’s senior care facilities.

She also led 2017’s “Doctors and Sex Abuse” project, with Danny Robbins, Teegardin, Ariel Hart and Jeff Ernshausen, which examined physicians nationally who abuse their patients and are allowed to continue practicing. The team found 2,400 doctors who continued practicing after being disciplined for sexually abusing patients and the failures that allowed that to happen. The project was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting.

Along with guiding teams through investigations, Norder boasts achievements in building hand-coded databases and pioneering newsroom tools. She previously held editorial roles at the Shreveport Journal and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Norder will be recognized at the Gerald Loeb Awards banquet and celebration Oct. 9 at the Rainbow Room in New York City.

About the Author

Savannah Sicurella is an entertainment business reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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