David Briggs has been a leading advocate among journalists of the importance of religion research in more than two decades of national and international reporting on religion, first as a national writer for The Associated Press and later as a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where his work also was distributed by Religion News Service and Newhouse News Service.

Briggs, who holds a master’s degree in religion from Yale Divinity School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, has been nominated eight times for the Pulitzer Prize and has been consistently honored among the Top 10 secular religion writers and reporters in the last 20 years. He has won the Religion Newswriters Association‘s Supple Religion Writer of the Year Award and the Wilbur Award for excellence in secular religion journalism along with several honors for investigative reporting on topics including sexual abuse by evangelical and Catholic leaders. He served as president of the Religion Newswriters Association from 2000-2002.

Briggs’ current interests include developing collegial relationships and educational opportunities among international journalists on religion. In 2009, he taught a six-week course for prominent religion journalists throughout the world for the International Center for Journalists and developed a stand-alone online course for writers in Malaysia.