2024 Dao Prize for Excellence in Multimedia Journalism

Claire Ballor won the 2024 Best Multimedia Reporting Dao Prize with Maggie Prosser, Sharon Grigsby, and Tom Fox for The Dallas Morning News for 30 days’ worth of stories exposing the full scope and reality of the fentanyl epidemic gripping north Texas. They received $10,000 for their reporting.

Since first starting her career at The Dallas Morning News in 2015, Claire has reported and written on a wide range of topics, covering breaking news, Dallas City Hall, criminal and civil courts and, most recently, food.

Her work last year included the shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets and the fentanyl epidemic.

Here are some of their reports on the fentanyl epidemic:

Tears and heartache in Denton’s 158th District Court, Claire Ballor and Tom Fox, September 18, 2023

Code Two: Inside the fentanyl fight at one North Texas school, Maggie Prosser, September 14, 2023

Fentanyl’s blessing and ruin: Inside a 12-hour shift at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital, Sharon Grigsby, Claire Ballor, Tom Fox, and Juan Figueroa, September 25, 2023

The pull of fentanyl was stronger than everything else, until the baby came, Claire Ballor and Tom Fox, September 30, 2023

‘Something of hers’: North Texas mom copes with grief after daughter’s fentanyl poisoning, Maggie Prosser and Tom Fox, September 29, 2023