Mike Perlstein Bio, Age, Height, WWL-TV, Net Worth, Salary, Parents, and Wife

Mike was a 2013 IRE finalist for stories that uncovered connected insiders as regular recipients of lucrative scholarships to Tulane University rewarded by state lawmakers. The series, in partnership with The New Orleans Advocate, directed reforms by Tulane to clean up the program.

Other stories by Mike included an expensive city pre-trial release program that went virtually unused, uncovering a traffic court judge who disobeyed traffic laws, and hidden insurance purchases by New Orleans judges – a series that sparked a state audit declaring the perks unlawful.

Mike relocated to New Orleans in 1986 to serve as a staff writer at The Times-Picayune, where he immersed himself in the area’s spicy politics, rich environment for investigative reporting, and hard-edged crime news.

During his distinguished 2 decades career at the newspaper, he wrote extensively regarding crime and punishment, earning countless national and regional journalism awards. Mike was honored with the Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News and Public Service as part of the newspaper team that reported on Hurricane Katrina.

As a teacher, Mike has communicated his front-line reporting experiences with hundreds of aspiring journalists, teaching at SUNO, Tulane, Dillard, and Loyola. At Loyola, where he was a Visiting Assistant Professor from 2006-2009, he penned freelance articles for The New York Times,  New Orleans Magazine, Washington Post, and others.

Mike has a bachelor’s degree from Reed College and a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University. When not working, he coaches the basketball and soccer teams of his three children.