ProPublica has selected five new partner newsrooms and local journalists for its Local Reporting Network. The reporters are Robin Urevich of Capital & Main, Becca Savransky of the Idaho Statesman, Rose Lundy of The Maine Monitor, Jessica Miller of The Salt Lake Tribune and Brandi Kellam of the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO. The reporting projects are supported by a grant from the Abrams Foundation. This group will begin their investigative projects on Nov. 1.
Capital & Main (California) — Robin Urevich
Urevich is a senior reporter for Capital & Main, a nonprofit news site reporting from California on economic inequality, environmental and social issues. Her work for the publication has included investigations into the employment practices of President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary Andrew Puzder and a probe of the deaths of immigrants in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. She has reported for several print and public radio outlets including NPR, “Marketplace” and Los Angeles NPR affiliate KPCC. Urevich’s work has been recognized with numerous local and regional awards. In 2022, she won the Los Angeles Press Club’s online journalist of the year award for a series of stories on the roots of California’s housing crisis. Urevich received a master’s degree from the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Idaho Statesman (Idaho) — Becca Savransky
Savransky is the education reporter for the Statesman in Boise and a Report for America corps member. She is dedicated to covering the obstacles students with disabilities face in getting the resources they need. Savransky’s coverage last year on families’ struggles to secure school services for their children with dyslexia was cited by lawmakers and education officials; months after the story published, the Idaho Legislature passed a law to require dyslexia screenings and resources after years of stalling. Before joining the Statesman, she worked as a reporter for the SeattlePI, where she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness and housing, and for The Hill in Washington, D.C. Savransky holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Northwestern University.
The Maine Monitor (Maine) — Rose Lundy
Lundy is a health reporter with the Monitor, a nonprofit, online investigative news outlet that informs Mainers about the issues impacting their state. Before joining the Monitor, Lundy covered local government for The Daily News, a newspaper in Washington state. She has written award-winning stories about price-gouging in mobile home parks, heat and food insecurity, achievement gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic and nursing home closures. Lundy earned a degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2020, she moved to Portland, Maine, to cover the pandemic as a member of Report for America. The Monitor was also a member of the Local Reporting Network in 2020; the reporting project, “Defenseless,” investigated how Maine handles legal services for the poor.
The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah) — Jessica Miller
Miller is an investigative reporter for the Tribune. She was part of the Tribune team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for its reporting on the punitive treatment of sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University. Miller is a two-time Livingston Award finalist, for investigating mistreatment in Utah’s booming “troubled-teen” industry and a data-driven series on Utahns shot by police while experiencing a mental health crisis. She was also a co-host and reporter for “Sent Away” — an award-winning investigative podcast from the Tribune, KUER and APM Reports — which exposes Utah’s failure to keep vulnerable young people safe in teen treatment programs.
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO (Virginia) — Brandi Kellam
Kellam is an Emmy award-winning journalist with the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO, an independent, nonprofit investigative reporting news service. Kellam has also reported and produced for CBS News, where she contributed to the network’s historic coverage of Trump’s 2020 Senate impeachment trial and the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd in police custody. In 2021, Kellam was awarded a fellowship from Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center For Journalism and Civil and Human Rights to follow how public policy and urbanization disproportionately impacts black residents in Newport News, Virginia. Kellam has also been an instructor, leading course discussions on journalism for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she earned a master’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism. Kellam also holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
ProPublica launched the Local Reporting Network at the beginning of 2018 to boost investigative journalism in local newsrooms. It has since worked with nearly 60 news organizations. The network is part of ProPublica’s local initiative, which includes offices in the Midwest, South and Southwest, plus an investigative unit in partnership with The Texas Tribune.
