Patricia Wen

Patricia Wen is a staff writer for the Boston Globe magazine where she focuses on investigative narratives, in-depth features and profiles.

She joined the magazine in 2024 after having spent nearly seven years as editor of the Globe’s Spotlight Team, and two decades as a reporter in the metro section focusing on social service, legal and medical issues.

Over her time at the Globe, she has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times – in 2004 for feature writing, in 2013 as part of a team for national reporting, and in 2018 as the Spotlight editor overseeing a seven-part series on race issues in Boston.

While she oversaw Spotlight, the team produced numerous investigative and explanatory projects, including its first podcast-print series, Gladiator, about the life and death of New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez. The podcast, produced in partnership with Wondery, has attracted more than 10 million downloads and is being made into a TV series by FX.

The team also won the 2020 Online Journalism Award for explanatory reporting for a series on transportation issues and the 2019 Pulliam First Amendment award from the Society of Professional Journalists for a series about the state legal system.

Married with three children and a graduate of Harvard College, she previously worked at the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. and the Stamford Advocate in CT. before joining the Globe staff.