Lisa S. Chedekel 57, Entered Eternal Rest January 12, 2018. Lisa grew up in Andover attended Phillips Academy and graduated Wesleyan University in 1982 with a degree in English. Later that year she put those skills to the test working at the now defunct New Haven Advocate. Two years later, she joined the New Haven Register.
In 1992, she moved to the Hartford Courant. A year later, she was a member of a team of Courant reports who won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the deadly shooting rampage at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. She also traveled to a Mexican sweatshop that produced apparel for the University of Connecticut and revealed that UConn’s athletic director and coaches were swapping game tickets for cars with a sponsor.
She switched to political coverage in 2000. IN 2002, she spent 10 days in Saudi Arabia to gauge the country’s sentiment towards the USA a year after the 9/11 attacks. On the ground in the Middle East Chedekel and her photographer were kept on a tight lease by “minders” , who track their every move.
One of her most championed pieces was “Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight” a 2006 investigative series with Courant Staff writer Matthew Kaufmann that exposed the military in violation of its own rules by sending mentally ill soldiers to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The series won many awards as was a finalist for another Pulitzer Prize.
In 2008, Lisa left the Courant and began writing for the Boston University School of Public Health and teaching journalism at Northeastern University.
Lisa was the devoted wife of Dr. Isabel Morais; a beloved mother of Bernard Chedekel and Evelyn Chedekel and a loving daughter to the late Paul and Evelyn Chedekel. Services at Temple Emanuel 7 Haggetts Pond Road Andover on Tuesday January 19 at 11:00 AM. Interment in Temple Emanuel Cemetery. Lawrence. Condolence calls may be made at her late residence following the interment until 6 PM and also on Wednesday 4-7PM. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy in her memory may be made to Lung Cancer Foundation of America or Evarts deRahm Hospice House 65 Chilton St. Cambridge, MA 02138.