Ellen Goodman is an American original. Her abundant talents -- intellect, wit, style, news judgment -- set her apart with an élan uniquely her own. Her Pulitzer Prize winning commentary appears in more than 375 newspapers.

One of those rare writers and thinkers who senses emerging shifts in our public and private lives, Goodman alters perceptions of confounding issues. “She takes current events and sees their universal truths,” says the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.

Goodman has been an innovative force in American journalism. She once said, “I think readers need to be less alienated from editorial pages” and made them so by expanding the debate on op-ed pages. She has commented on the tumult of social change and its impact on families, and shattered the mold of men writing exclusively about politics.

Goodman brings new readers to editorial pages. She is widely acclaimed as a voice of sanity, and readers depend on her to help them make sense of their changing lives and relationships. “I have always read Ellen Goodman,” a Sarasota, Fla., reader says. “She writes on issues that concern me, no matter where I’ve lived or where I moved.”

Goodman’s first job was at Newsweek as a researcher, at a time when only men became writers. She landed a job as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press in 1965 and, in 1967, for The Boston Globe where she began writing her column..

A 1963 cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, Goodman returned to Harvard in 1973-74 as a Nieman Fellow, where she studied the dynamics of social change. Her column was syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group in 1976.

In 1980, Goodman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary.

As the first Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Professional Journalism at Stanford University, she taught opinion writing for the winter semester in 1996.

Goodman’s first book, “Turning Points” (Doubleday, 1979), detailed the effect of the changing roles of women on the family. Six collections of her columns have been published: “Paper Trail: Common Sense in Uncommon Times” (Simon & Schuster, 2004); “Close to Home” (Simon & Schuster, 1979); “At Large” (Summit Books, 1981); “Keeping in Touch” (Summit Books, 1985); “Making Sense” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989); and “Value Judgments” (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1993). She is also co-author with Patricia O’Brien of “I Know Just What You Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women’s Lives” (Simon & Schuster, 2000).

Goodman’s work has won many other awards, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award in 1980. She received the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 1988. In 1993, at its Seventh Annual Exceptional Merit Media Award Ceremony, The National Women’s Political Caucus gave her the President’s Award. In 1994, the Women’s Research & Education Institute presented her with their American Woman Award.

Goodman lives in Brookline, Mass., with her husband. Read more about her at www.ellengoodman.com.