Steve Reilly is a Senior Investigative Data Journalist at CBS News and Stations based in Washington, D.C.
He was previously a reporter on USA TODAY's investigative team, where his reporting led to reforms in rape kit processing protocols, helped spur congressional hearings on the security of the nation’s power grid and prompted national improvements in background checks for teachers. He has also worked as an investigative reporter at Grid News and The Messenger, and as the reporting assistant for Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward, who wrote that Reilly “gives new meaning to the archetypal image of the dogged, relentless investigative reporter.”
Reilly was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Investigative Reporting in 2017 for a series on educator misconduct, and has twice been a finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. He joined the National Press Club Board of Governors in 2023 and currently serves as its Chair.
He is a graduate of Vassar College and earned his master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, where his thesis focused on international press freedom. He has been an invited guest speaker at institutions including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Missouri School of Journalism.
A Pennsylvania native, Reilly began his journalism career at community newspapers in rural Pennsylvania and upstate New York.