Ellen Nakashima is an American journalist who covers national security for The Washington Post.

Nakashima began her journalism career at The Hartford Courant and The Quincy Patriot Ledger, before joining The Washington Post as a reporter in 1995.

In 2014, she won the Gerald Loeb Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service,[4] while in 2017, she was named Alumna of the Year by the Daily Californian Alumni Association.

[5] She reported on Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election and contacts between aides to President Trump and Russian officials, work which earned her and her colleagues a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2018.

[1] On 10 April 2024, Nakashima was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden in honor of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House.