KENNETH J. COOPER a Pulitzer Prize winner, has been a newspaper reporter and editor for nearly 30 years, specializing in government, politics and social policy, at the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Knight Ridder, St. Louis American and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 1984, Cooper, then 28, shared a Pulitzer Prize in special local reporting for his role in producing "The Race Factor", a Boston Globe series that examined institutional racism in Boston. Cooper covered the nation's capital for a dozen years, reporting on the presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, welfare reform and health policy for Knight Ridder. For the Washington Post, he covered education policy and Congress, including the "Republican revolution" that took control of Congress is 1994. He also wrote a monthly column on Washington, "Capital Scene," for Emerge magazine. From 1996 to 1999, Cooper was the Post's correspondent for South Asia, reporting on India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives from his base in New Delhi. In his second stint at the Boston Globe, he was its National Editor from 2001 to 2005. Cooper started his newspaper career at the St. Louis American, a small weekly, a month before graduating from college. Within a year, he moved to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.