Soumya was named a Livingston Award finalist in 2021 for her story on an L.A. nurse who died of COVID-19 after her hospital did not provide her with proper PPE. She rushed into a patient’s room to save his life and, in exchange, lost her own.
In 2020, Soumya was was awarded 1st place for Best Feature by the California News Publishers Association for her reporting on traveling abortion doctors. The same year she received 4th place for Best Enterprise for her investigation into deaths at psychiatric hospitals and 5th for Best Profile for her story on a man who posed as a doctor for years and then graduated from medical school.
In 2018, Soumya was named a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow. She spent two weeks at the Carter Center in Atlanta studying mental health reporting and went on to publish a series of stories on problems at psychiatric hospitals.
As part of the Metro desk at the L.A. Times, Soumya has covered numerous shootings, fires and other disasters. She was on a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2016 for its reporting on the San Bernardino terrorist attack. Her reporting was also included in a package of stories on the 2019 California Boat Fire that was named a Pultizer finalist for Breaking News in 2020.
Other Awards and Recognition:
Soumya’s work has been recognized by CNN and the Columbia Journalism Review. Read those stories here, here and here.
2nd for Best Gender Reporting, Los Angeles Press Club, 2019. Read story here.
3rd for Best Feature, California News Publishers Association, 2017. Read story here.
3rd for Best Crime Reporting, Los Angeles Press Club, 2019. Read story here.
USC Health Journalism Fellow, 2015
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Fellow, 2016