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A 1989 graduate in journalism and English from California State University, Fresno, Lisa Kim Bach started her career at the Modesto Bee, then the Clovis Independent, Fresno Bee and the News Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind., before joining the Las Vegas Review-Journal as a reporter in 1997.
Her byline appeared more than 2,000 times in the Review-Journal.
She won many awards from the Nevada Press Association over the years, including the 2007 Community Service award when she led a team covering Clark County’s troubled Department of Family Services.
“A series of stories that touched the heart of a community,” a contest judge wrote. “It shows why this is an issue that matters to the reader, on a broad number of stories that take us beyond the investigations of a blue-ribbon panel to the overcrowded emergency shelters for children victims of neglect and abuse. By getting her hands on censored material, reporter Lisa Kim Bach sheds light on how a system failed to protect those that needed it most.”
After she moved to assistant city editor in 2008, her work on the education beat continued to inform readers and guide reporters.
“She was passionately engaged in her craft and expected the same from others,” wrote Carri Geer Thevenot. “If others weren’t quite at that point, she’d coax them there through example and direct inspiration.”
Born in Korea to an Army father and his Korean wife, Lisa grew up on a farm in Kentucky, then came West with her family for college. Her 27-year journalism career was cut short when she died from cancer in April 2016.
“The newsroom was filled with laughter on her shift.” remembered Jane Ann Morrison. “Loud, hearty laughter, which if bottled could lighten any office. And there was chocolate in a jar on her desk. Everyone was welcome to grab some. Laughter and chocolate were her cures.”
— from the nomination
