David Briggs has traveled extensively in more than 20 years as a religion reporter.

Briggs holds a master’s degree in religion from Yale Divinity School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He began covering religion at The Buffalo News in 1985 and was a national religion reporter for The Associated Press for nearly a decade before joining The Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1998.

He has won the Religion Newswriters Association‘s Supple Religion Writer of the Year Award and the Wilbur Award for excellence in secular religion journalism along with several honors for investigative reporting on topics including sexual abuse by evangelical and Catholic leaders. He served as president of the Religion Newswriters Association form 2000-2002.