Texas Tech University

Tod Robberson

2011 Outstanding Alumni

Tod Robberson, who graduated from Texas Tech University's College of Media & Communication in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in print journalism, is a 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner who now works at the Dallas Morning News.

After graduating, Robberson was on the startup staff of the Washington Business Journal. He later formed a news service with Sarah McClendon. He later was an editor on the foreign, business and metro desks of The Washington Post.

In 1983, Robberson worked at the Arab News in Beirut to start an English-language newspaper. He then held a reporting position with the Reuters news agency, which moved Robberson to Cyprus, where he became a roving correspondent covering Syria and the Iran-Iraq war. In 1986, Reuters promoted Robberson to be its bureau chief in El Salvador.

Shortly after that, Georgetown University offered Robberson a fellowship, and he returned to Washington, D.C., to work on his master's degree in Arab Studies. While finishing his master's degree, Robberson returned to The Washington Post as an assistant foreign editor.

In 1990, The Post sent Robberson to Iraq. From 1992 to 1996, Robberson was The Post's bureau chief in Mexico City. In 1997, The Dallas Morning News hired Robberson to cover Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Middle East. He lived in Bogotá, Colombia, with his wife and daughter, before moving to Panama City, Panama.

In 2003, The Morning News made Robberson its Europe bureau chief, based in London. He continues to cover the Middle East intensively. He has made numerous, month-long trips to Afghanistan and more than a dozen trips to Iraq. He speaks fluent Spanish, and he speaks, reads and writes Arabic.

Tod Robberson