ProPublica announced the selection of three reporters from its Local Reporting Network partner newsrooms to focus solely on investigative reporting. Reporters Rafael Carranza of Arizona Luminaria, Ashad Hajela of the New York Amsterdam News and María Inés Zamudio of Invisible Institute will collaborate with ProPublica’s editors and specialized teams on investigations for a three-year term. This project is made possible by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“These exciting new partnerships underscore ProPublica’s commitment to investigative reporting about, and on behalf of, diverse communities,” said Sarah Blustain, assistant managing editor for local at ProPublica. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to forge longer-term relationships and deeper reporting with these newsrooms.”

Rafael Carranza, Arizona Luminaria
Carranza is a bilingual multimedia reporter born in Mexico and raised in Arizona who has covered the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and immigrant communities for the past 15 years. He previously worked as a border and immigration reporter for The Arizona Republic and the USA Today Network, where he led several multimedia projects, including an investigative podcast about a cross-border shooting in Arizona. Carranza was part of the reporting team awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for “The Wall” and received an Emmy for his video reporting on the project, which looked at the impacts of the construction of border barriers.

Ashad Hajela, Amsterdam News
Hajela is a data and investigations reporter at the New York Amsterdam News. He previously covered youth, race and justice at Connecticut Public Radio. There, he scrutinized Connecticut’s prisons and youth justice system. Hajela won a Society of Professional Journalists award for his coverage of educational attainment behind bars. Before that, he covered rural affairs for Spotlight PA through Report for America and public safety at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.

María Inés Zamudio, Invisible Institute
Zamudio is an award-winning journalist investigating racial inequalities and underlying policies. Her coverage of Chicago’s water affordability crisis led to a freeze on water shutoffs and millions of dollars in new assistance programs for low-income homeowners. Recently, Zamudio helped document for the first time how prolonged exposure to toxins in post-disaster worksites affects the health of workers rebuilding American cities. The reporting exposed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s lax enforcement policy for monitoring post-disaster worksites and documented how the loosely regulated disaster restoration industry often takes advantage of immigrant workers. The investigation was recognized with a Sigma Delta Chi Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award. Zamudio has also helped expand the ranks of investigative journalists of color in Chicago, co-creating the FOIAFest Boot Camp to help train and mentor early reporters working on investigative projects with public records.

The LRN began in January 2018 in an effort to help remedy the lack of investigative reporting at the local level. It has since worked with more than 80 news organizations across the country and has produced more than 100 projects to date. Those stories have spurred impact and changed lives. They’ve led to a national emergency being declared in Alaska; debt being forgiven in Memphis, Tennessee; and vast sums of money being allocated to fix longstanding problems in Idaho and Hawaii.

ProPublica recently expanded its scope of work at the local and regional levels with the addition of the 50 State Initiative, our commitment to working with a reporter in each state by 2029. The initiative broadens our support for local journalism, which now includes the LRN alongside dedicated reporting hubs in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, as well as an investigative unit in partnership with The Texas Tribune.

About ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. With a team of more than 100 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics and focuses on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Its reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels. Since it began publishing in 2008, ProPublica has received seven Pulitzer Prizes, five Peabody Awards, five Emmy Awards and 15 George Polk Awards.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community; research in areas of media and democracy, and the American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. KF.org