Lyons' writing at the Observer has brought her national recognition. "Journey to hope," the moving chronicle of her search for faith that ended in a church in South Dallas, captured a first-place Penney-Missouri feature-writing award in 1993. "Ineligible for justice" and "The trashing of Ferris, Texas," both written in 1994, won Columbia University's Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, which honors outstanding journalism that fights intolerance and discrimination.
Lyons began working for the Observer as a free-lance writer in 1992. She has been a reporter at The Seattle Times and the Dallas Times Herald.