ABOUT
Stephanie Kuzydym is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter for The Louisville Courier Journal, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.
For the last decade, Kuzydym’s reporting largely focused on the health and safety of athletes. In “Safer Sidelines,” a four-part series based on several months of reporting, Kuzydym uncovered the many ways high schools, athletic associations and lawmakers have failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario – sudden death in sports. The project included a first-of-its-kind searchable database of U.S. athlete deaths, as well as a survey and expert assessment of athletic emergency action plans for Kentucky high schools.
Safer Sidelines was heralded as a catalyst for change and called "the single most impactful contribution to the health and safety of high school athletes that has ever been produced from a media source in our country’s history," by Dr. Doug Casa, the CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute, who has dedicated his career to shining a light on sudden death in athletes
Kuzydym’s work received the 2023 National Athletic Trainers Association’s President’s Service Award, the 2023 NATA Secondary School Committee’s Advocacy Award, the 2023 Korey Stringer Institute’s Lifesaving Education Award and the 2023 Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award.
Kuzydym has been on both the print and broadcast sides of journalism. She started her career in the sports departments of newspapers in Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas before flipping over to the broadcast side where she learned investigative and accountability reporting, specifically focused on safer sidelines for high school athletes.
Prior to Louisville, she was at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. Her investigations focus on accountability across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. In her role in Cincinnati, she was part field producer, part FOIA master and part data visualization nerd: researching stories, requesting documents, conducting interviews, writing scripts and turning the information into data visualizations for digital.
She regularly produced two special projects: Athletes AT Risk, a 200-story project that looked at the health and safety of high school athletes following the death of Northern Kentucky high school athlete Matthew Mangien Jr. She also helped produce nearly 600 stories for Childhood Poverty: Cincinnati’s Crisis, which uncovered why Cincinnati has the fourth-highest childhood poverty rate.
She previously worked as a associate producer on a five-person investigative and special projects unit for KHOU-TV in Houston, where she was responsible for generating new story ideas, planning and conducting interviews, obtaining and organizing data and filing more than 800 open records requests to school districts, police departments and other governmental entities. Her work focused on taking deep dives into police body cameras, teenage anxiety, sex trafficking and high school athletics departments, in Houston and nationally.
Her team’s investigation into HPD’s body camera program earned them a DuPont, an Emmy and a Gracie. Her previous newspaper work in Cleveland into concussions was awarded a Headliner and named a finalist for the Livingston.
Awards
KENTUCKY PRESS ASSOCIATION FEBRUARY 2024
Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award
ONLINE NEWS ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER 2023
2023 Sports, Health and Wellness Award, Small/Medium Newsroom
NATIONAL ATHLETIC TRAINERS’ ASSOCIATION JUNE 2023
President’s Service Award
NATA SECONDARY SCHOOL’S COMMITTEE JUNE 2023
Advocacy Award
KOREY STRINGER INSTITUTE MAY 2023
ALFRED I DuPONT AWARD JANUARY 2018
Transparency
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS JUNE 2018
Service to America Award: Selling Girls
LONE STAR EMMY NOVEMBER 2017
News Special: Transparency Magazine
Program Special/Series: Who Killed Patrick
THE GRACIE AWARD MARCH 2018
Selling Girls
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS and EDITORS JUNE 2017
Broadcast/Video Medium Finalist: Transparency
GREATER CINCINNATI SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS JUNE 2021
The Gerald White Memorial Award: Cincy SPJ's most prestigious award, presented for excellence in investigative reporting & judged on enterprise, depth of research & overall presentation for coverage of Matthew Mangine Jr.'s collapse on the soccer field.
Best Continuing Coverage or Series: Athletes AT Risk
Best Reporting on Child/Teen/Youth Issues: Athletes AT Risk
Best Minority Issues Coverage: Childhood Poverty - Cincinnati’s Crisis
SPJ - FORT WORTH CHAPTER APRIL 2018
First Amendment Award: Investigations
TEXAS AP BROADCASTERS 2017 & 2018
Documentary : Transparency
Online/Special Content: Transparency
Series: Selling Girls
LIVINGSTON AWARD APRIL 2015
National Reporting Finalist: Mind Over Matter
NATIONAL HEADLINER AWARD JUNE 2015
2nd place, Sports Reporting: Mind Over Matter
