Johanna Berkman is an award-winning journalist and Writer at Large for Air Mail. Winner of the 2023 Deadline Club Award for Arts Reporting for her story about a complicated plagiarism scandal, she writes about the Middle East, higher education, business, and the wealth culture. Her story about financier Leon Black’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein was a finalist for the 2024 Deadline Club Award for Business Feature. She has appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss her Air Mail articles about antisemitism and the Ivy League. Her stories have been featured in The New York Post and linked to in The Financial Times.
Johanna has written investigative stories for New York magazine and The New York Times Magazine. She has also written for The Free Press, The Cut, The Washington Post, Tablet, National Geographic Traveler, and many other publications. She wrote an investigative series about sexual abuse at the elite, all-boys Brant Lake Camp in upstate New York.
Johanna was featured in the Steve Madden documentary Maddman: The Steve Madden Story, on account of an in-depth New York magazine story that she wrote about Madden and the financial crimes he committed in connection with Jordan Belfort and Stratton Oakmont. Her story was included as exemplary finance journalism, alongside the work of Michael Lewis and John Cassidy, at the University of Michigan Law Library.
Johanna's short fiction has been published in Harvard Review. Her travel writing is featured in the National Geographic book 1000 Perfect Weekends.
Prior to becoming a journalist, Johanna worked at Goldman Sachs. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College.