Buzbee, Sally

Sally Buzbee served most recently as Executive Editor of The Washington Post, the newspaper's first woman top editor. During her tenure, the Post won numerous Pulitzer Prizes including a public service Pulitzer for its in-depth examination of the Jan. 6, 2021, post-election insurrection at the Capitol; and the 2024 national Pulitzer for its examination of the AR-15’s role in mass slayings. 

While at the Post, she expanded climate and wellness coverage, deepened the Post's international investigative work and its visual investigative work and oversaw new efforts to grow readers through social media and expanded digital storytelling.  

Before joining the Post in 2021, Buzbee was Executive Editor of The Associated Press overseeing one of the world's largest global newsrooms. Buzbee played a hands-on oversight role in the news cooperative's election coverage, war coverage, investigative work and its build out of journalism partnerships with other news organizations. She oversaw greater cooperation among journalists working in text, photos, video and interactive formats. 

As bureau chief for The AP in Washington previous to that, she helped create the AP's VoteCast, an alternative to traditional exit polls, and expanded the bureau's investigative work. She oversaw coverage of two presidential elections including Donald Trump's 2016 election. 

Previous to her role as Washington bureau chief, Buzbee served as Middle East regional editor for The AP based in Cairo, overseeing its coverage of the U.S.-led Iraq war, Israel-Gaza war, Israel-Hezbollah war, Darfur crisis and Iran nuclear crises. 

She started her career as a reporter for The AP in Topeka, Kan., working for the legendary statehouse correspondent Lew Ferguson, before moving on to Kansas City, Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington DC., covering state legislatures, immigration fights and politics. 

Buzbee serves on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists and is a judge for the Livingston awards for young journalists and the Gerald Loeb awards for business and financial coverage. She has a journalism degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Georgetown University, and is a graduate of Olathe (Kan.) South High School. 

Buzbee is the daughter-in-law of Richard Buzbee, longtime editor and publisher of The Hutchinson (Kan) News. She has two grown daughters, Emma and Meg. Her husband, John Buzbee, a onetime reporter for The Kansas City Star and later a U.S. Foreign Service officer, died in 2016.