Wesley Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author, arrived on American University’s Washington, D.C., campus in 2023 to fanfare, becoming only the second top editor of an investigative workshop founded by a journalism pioneer. Less than two years later, Lowery is out amid controversy. He resigned after allegations from students and faculty that he made inappropriate sexual comments in private meetings with students and unwanted sexual advances and actions toward journalists, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Washington Post. Lowery, 34, is a former reporter for the Post and “60 Minutes,” the author of two books and a commentator on civil rights, policing and journalism. Lowery rose to national prominence in 2014 a while covering racial-justice protests and riots in Ferguson, Mo. He won a Pulitzer as a reporter on “Fatal Force,” a Post project documenting police shootings across the country.
Since 2023, he had served as a tenured professor and executive editor of American’s Investigative Reporting Workshop, which partners with publications on reporting projects. The university billed him as "one of the most consequential journalism innovators and educators of our time." His resignation came after the Post asked him and the university about complaints from students, professors and journalists about his behavior. Two professors filed five complaints against Lowery on behalf of six women, the records show, including to the university’s Office of Equity and Title IX, which enforces the federal law barring sex-based discrimination and harassment. One student filed her own complaint. Lowery denied the allegations in the complaints. He said he was contacted about only one of the complaints, after the Title IX office declined to take it up. “I have never been under Title IX investigation,” he said.