Caryl Rivers is a nationally known author and journalist. She was awarded the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 from the Society of Professional Journalists for distinguished achievement in Journalism. She is a professor of Journalism at Boston University. Professor Rivers received the Gannett Freedom Forum Journalism Grant for research on media, the Goldsmith Research Grant, from the Shorenstein Center at the JFK School of Government, Harvard University, for research on gender and media issues, and the Massachusetts Foundation For The Humanities Media Studies Grant to research the ways in which gender, race and class affect news coverage.