National program places Jordan Wilkie in NC to focus on elections and government accountability
Carolina Public Press is pleased to announce that it will expand its reporting on open government, civil liberties and election transparency and security, especially in light of COVID-19 in North Carolina, thanks to a partnership with Report for America.
Report for America corps member Jordan Wilkie will join the Carolina Public Press staff in June. Report for America is a competitive program that builds a select reporting corps of talented, emerging journalists and places them into local news organizations to report for one to two years on under-covered issues and communities.
“Report for America is a key partner for Carolina Public Press as we continue to build our nonprofit news team’s investigative journalism on North Carolina’s democracy, especially in 2020,” said Carolina Public Press Executive Director Angie Newsome. “Additional reporting resources are always needed to fill gaps, and it’s timely for North Carolinians as we approach the November election, especially as the state deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Wilkie has reported for The Guardian, the Raleigh/Durham IndyWeek and WhoWhatWhy.org and has served as an administrator and instructor of educational programming in prisons and juvenile detentions in Oregon. Wilkie holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon. His reporting has also already appeared in Carolina Public Press, including a guide to the challenges facing election integrity in North Carolina.
“We’re delighted to have Jordan here,” Newsome said. “There’s a critical need in North Carolina to strengthen reliable and trustworthy journalism on elections and open government. Strengthening our team supports our ability to educate the people of North Carolina on how important transparency is to a democracy. We are grateful to Report for America for the opportunity.”
An initiative of the nonprofit The GroundTruth Project, Report for America was founded in 2017 as a way to expand coverage in local communities. In addition to Carolina Public Press, North Carolina corps members will be at The Associated Press, North Carolina; La Noticia, Inc. North Carolina; North Carolina Health News; The Charlotte Observer; The News & Observer; WFAE/Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library and WFAE/La Noticia (joint project).
Carolina Public Press is a 501(c)(3) independent nonprofit news organization dedicated to nonpartisan, in-depth and investigative news built upon the facts and context North Carolinians need to know. Our award-winning, breakthrough journalism dismantles barriers and shines a light on the critical overlooked and under-reported issues facing our state’s 10.2 million residents. Originally founded in 2011 to report on Western North Carolina, it expanded in 2018 to cover the entire state.
Report for America will pay for half of the corps member’s salary, with Carolina Public Press funding the remainder. Please go here if you’d like to support this reporting effort with a tax-deductible contribution.
For more information on this project, please call 828-774-5290 or email Executive Director Angie Newsome at anewsome@carolinapublicpress.org.
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