ProPublica announced Monday that Elizabeth Weil will join its staff as a reporter covering California and climate, investigating not only how climate change is being lived but how decisions by individuals, industries and governments are shaping life-and-death outcomes.

Weil previously worked as a writer-at-large for the New York Times Magazine. Among her most notable work there was a profile of a man charged in the deaths of his friends in a fire at the Ghost Ship artists’ warehouse in Oakland, while neither the building’s landlords or city officials were held accountable. Her magazine work has won a New York Press Club Award in feature reporting, a Lowell Thomas Award in travel writing, a GLAAD Award for coverage of LGBT issues, and been a finalist for a National Magazine Award, a James Beard Award in food writing, and Dart Award for coverage of trauma.

An author of several books, Weil’s most recent, The Girl Who Smiled Beads, was a New York Times bestseller and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in nonfiction. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, the writer Daniel Duane, and their two teenage daughters.

“Elizabeth is an exciting addition to the ProPublica team, a gifted writer with a dedication to digging for the truth,” Robin Fields, ProPublica managing editor, said. “As California experiences climate change in extreme ways, from unprecedented heat to intensifying fire, we’re thrilled that she will be telling the story of how the nation’s most influential climate policy lab is making choices that will resonate across the country and world.”

“California is endlessly fascinating, and its influence has always stretched far beyond the borders of the state,” Weil said. “Right now our world needs ProPublica more than ever, and I am honored to be joining the team.”