Lisa Falkenberg

Early life and education

Falkenberg was born on July 12, 1978, and raised in Seguin, Texas, by father and mother Carl Leroy and Connie Sue Falkenberg (née, Koehler). She has an older sister, Lorie Ann, and a younger sister, Holly Sue.

She began her career as a journalist writing for her high school newspaper. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and was awarded a degree in journalism in 2000.

Journalism career

For the next four years, Falkenberg worked for the Associated Press. In 2004, she was named the Texas AP writer of the year. The following year, she became a state correspondent for the Houston Chronicle. She became a columnist for that paper in 2007.

In 2014, Falkenberg's editor nominated her for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She was one of two finalists, but did not win. The following year, she won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, for a series of columns she had written about corrupt grand jury practices in Texas. The Pulitzer announcement noted that her win stemmed from "vividly-written, groundbreaking columns about grand jury abuses that led to a wrongful conviction and other egregious problems in the legal and immigration systems."

Personal life

Falkenberg was married on June 7, 2008, in Houston, Texas, to fellow journalist currently with the Houston Chronicle, Mizanur Rahman, and they have two children together.