Her investigation into campus rape cases for the center won the Robert F. Kennedy Award and the Dart Award in 2011, as well as the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in 2010, among other recognitions. More recently, Lombardi was a staff writer and investigative reporter at the Village Voice, where she provided groundbreaking coverage of the 9/11 health crisis. Her investigative reports as a staff writer for the Boston Phoenix were widely credited with helping to expose the clergy sexual-abuse scandal in that city.