Longtime NBC 5 Chicago reporter LeeAnn Trotter will receive the Chicago Journalists Association’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Royal Pratt will be recognized as Chicago Journalist of the Year, the organization announced Wednesday.

Trotter and Pratt will be honored at CJA’s 87th anniversary awards ceremony, presented by the Field Foundation, on Friday, November 13 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Newberry Library.

Windy City Times Managing Editor Jake Wittich will be master of ceremonies of the event, and the keynote speaker will be Borderless’ Editor-at-Large Nissa Rhee.

CJA’s Lifetime Achievement Award annually honors an Illinois journalist exemplifying the highest levels of career achievement, courage and tenacity. LeeAnn Trotter spent two decades at WMAQ-TV, NBC 5 Chicago, as a feature reporter covering Arts and Culture and events. She was also a regular contributor to NBC 5’s “Making a Difference” segments.

A Chicago native, she joined NBC 5 in December 2005 after working at CLTV News for eight years. There, she anchored the weekend news and hosted the award-winning entertainment show, “Metromix: The TV Show,” which earned her a local Emmy and several nominations for Best On-Camera Performance.

Trotter began her broadcasting career at WBBM Newsradio 780, where she held numerous positions, including production manager and traffic reporter. She also worked for Fox News Chicago and WGN Radio.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, CJA will honor Gregory Royal Pratt as Chicago Journalist of the Year. The award recognizes a local journalist who has produced exemplary work throughout the year.

Raised in Little Village, he was a key part of the Chicago Tribune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Midway Blitz coverage. His reporting has exposed wrongful convictions, police misconduct and fraud.

Before coming to the Tribune, he worked at the Phoenix New Times, Minneapolis City Pages and Hoy. He is the author of “The City is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis.”

Master of ceremonies Jake Wittich serves as managing editor at Windy City Times, where he leads the local LGBTQ+ news outlet’s digital strategy and newsletters. He is also an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he teaches LGBTQ+ journalism to undergraduates and foundational reporting skills to master’s students. 

This year marks Wittich’s 10th year working in Chicago journalism since walking into the Chicago Sun-Times as an intern in 2016. He went on to work for the paper’s metro desk and later Block Club Chicago. Wittich is also the Chicago chapter president for NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. 

The Chicago Journalists Association named Wittich the 2025 Chicago Journalist of the Year, recognizing his work expanding Windy City Times’ digital reach and building community among Chicago journalists. He is passionate about strengthening local journalism, mentoring the next generation of reporters and ensuring LGBTQ+ communities are represented in the stories Chicago tells.

Keynote speaker Nissa Rhee is an award-winning writer, editor and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in journalism. She cofounded Borderless Magazine in 2017 and led the news outlet as executive director until June 2026. She now serves as Editor-at-Large at Borderless, supporting the team by editing investigations and enterprise stories.

As a visionary media leader, Rhee transformed Borderless—a nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet reimagining immigration journalism—from a blog to a nationally recognized, award-winning newsroom with a dozen employees.

In 2025, the MacArthur and Field Foundations named her a 2025 Leader for a New Chicago for her work as a “compassionate storyteller.” 

Prior to Borderless, Nissa spent over a decade working as a reporter and editor in the U.S. and Asia. She also taught journalism at Northeastern Illinois University and trained Ukrainian refugee journalists in Greece as part of the U.S. State Department’s TechCamp program.

CJA will soon announce finalists for the prestigious Sarah Brown Boyden Awards and the Dorothy Storck Award.

CJA is grateful to the Field Foundation and Press Forward Chicago for their support of this year’s awards ceremony.

Secure your tickets to the awards ceremony here.