Esteemed Chicago journalist and former WMAQ political reporter and editor Carol Marin is among the recipients of the 2025 "Order of the Lincoln Honor," the state's highest honor for professional achievement and public service, according to a release from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office.
The award was established in 1964, the release said, and recognizes individuals who have made "remarkable contributions to the betterment of humanity in or on behalf of the State of Illinois." Marin and six others join more than 350 Illinois residents who have been awarded the honor over the last five decades, the release said.
Other 2025 recipients of the award include Bonnie Blair, first American woman to win five gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games; Sandra Cisernos, award-winning poet, essayist and short story writer; Jeanne Gang, architect and founding partner of international architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang; Janice K. Jackson, CEO of Hope Chicago and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools; and Julieanna L. Richardson, founder and president of Chicago-based nonprofit The HistoryMakers.
“With world-renowned achievements in athletics, literature, architecture, education, journalism and history, the 2025 class of Lincoln Laureates embody the very best that Illinois has to offer,” Pritzker said in the release. “I am proud to uplift their incredible contributions and to award these talented men and women our state’s highest honor.”
Marin, an Emmy Award-winning reporter, has worked at multiple local and national news outlets, including WMAQ, CBS News, "60 Minutes and the Evening News with Dan Rather. Marin also served as a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and was a regular contributor to WTTW's "Chicago Tonight."
To date, Marin has won three Peabody Awards, with her most recent in 2015 for investigative reporting with NBC Chicago on the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Marin also won two national Emmy awards and two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards. In 2002, Marin also won The American Women in Radio & Television's coveted Gracie Award, the release said.
Marin also started an independent documentary company, which began an association with Chicago's DePaul University in 2003, producing programs for CNN and The New York Times/Discovery Channel.
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In 2004, Marin returned to WMAQ, and later became NBC 5's politics editor. In 2020, Marin retired from broadcast news, after nearly 50 years in the industry.
"No one more deserving," NBC 5 politic reporter and longtime colleague Mary Ann Ahern said. "Carol Marin is the gold standard. Not just the smart questions she continues to ask - her tone reminds us to look for all sides of the story as we represent the people’s right to know."
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The recipients will be honored at a May 3 ceremony and dinner at the Krannert Center for the Arts on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, the release said.
