Pete McKenzie
Sir Harry Evans Global Fellow in Investigative Journalism
Pete McKenzie, the 2025 Sir Harry Evans Global Fellow in Investigative Journalism with Reuters, has written for The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, and The Economist.
He recently revealed that at least 34 Catholic priests and missionaries transferred to Pacific Island nations after allegedly abusing children in the West. In at least 13 cases, church officials knew the men had been accused or convicted. The investigation ran on the front page of The New York Times on the day Pope Francis made his first visit to the Pacific.
Also for The New York Times, he exposed how oversight failures by the Trump administration led to the exhaustion through corruption and mismanagement of a $60 million fund for refugees from American nuclear testing, and highlighted how hundreds of Pacific veterans were being denied VA care (healthcare administered by the US Department of Veterans Affairs). The first story led to congressional inquiries and revisions to a major treaty. The second helped prompt calls for reform that Congress acted on.
In 2024, McKenzie was a finalist for the Livingston Award. In 2023, he was named New Zealand’s Reporter of the Year.
