The Marshall Challenge is delighted to announce the launch of its third native newsroom — this time in St. Louis, which is able to embrace two investigative reporters, an engagement reporter, and a partnerships coordinator.
The reporting group will all be based mostly within the St. Louis space. The Marshall Challenge – St. Louis will mix journalistic horsepower from The Marshall Challenge’s nationwide newsroom with an area group to deepen native prison justice protection in Missouri. The problems embrace the dying penalty, the school-to-prison pipeline, re-entry, and healthcare in prisons.
“Our assembled group of reporters will convey contemporary eyes and many years of expertise to cowl the prison justice system. I’m extraordinarily excited for the work we’ll do in St. Louis and round Missouri,” stated Marlon A. Walker, managing editor of native, who has deep ties in St. Louis, the place he beforehand labored on the St. Louis Submit-Dispatch.
The Marshall Challenge’s nationwide newsroom has already established a presence reporting in St. Louis. In 2024, we reported a narrative a few dying penalty case in Missouri that highlighted the hurt brought on by paying dying penalty legal professionals a flat charge regardless of how lengthy they work on a case.
We additionally partnered with St. Louis Public Radio and APM Studies to report a five-part collection on how St. Louis police struggled to resolve over a thousand murders up to now decade. By combining public data that our companions had already fought to safe with the abilities of our reporting and visuals group, we labored collectively to provide an immersive, multimedia story that supplied a deeper understanding of the reporting. The investigation was just lately honored with an EPPY award, which celebrates excellence in digital journalism.
The Marshall Challenge has employed a formidable group of journalists with an extended monitor report protecting prison justice points. They embrace:
-
Jesse Bogan joins The Marshall Challenge as a workers author. Earlier than that, he labored for practically 15 years on the St. Louis Submit-Dispatch, the place he wrote in-depth tales about folks and communities on the margins. He beforehand coated the Southwest for Forbes journal and the Texas-Mexico border for the San Antonio Specific-Information. Bogan has a grasp’s diploma from the Missouri Faculty of Journalism. Earlier than information reporting, he was a grain dealer in Mexico for ADM. He grew up within the Missouri Ozarks.
-
Katie Moore joins The Marshall Challenge as a workers author. Beforehand, she was the justice reporter on The Kansas Metropolis Star’s accountability group, the place she coated policing, jail situations, and the dying penalty. She was a part of a group that reported on racism throughout the Kansas Metropolis Police Division, which led to a federal investigation. She has additionally reported for The Topeka Capital-Journal and was a fellow with the Worldwide Girls’s Media Basis. Moore holds a bachelor’s diploma in English from the College of Kansas and a grasp’s diploma in Peace and Justice Research from the College of San Diego.
-
Ivy Scott joins The Marshall Challenge as an engagement reporter. She was beforehand a reporter for the Boston Globe, the place she most just lately coated local weather points. Earlier than her time on the local weather desk, she coated prison justice points, together with the state courts, native police departments, district attorneys, the Division of Correction, and the legal professional normal’s workplace. She was a 2024 Livingston finalist for her narrative reporting on the aftermath of the mass taking pictures in Lewiston, Maine, and a Society for Options Journalism winner for her podcast miniseries on courting and love in jail. She studied worldwide journalism at Brown College and is almost fluent in French.
-
Will Lager joins The Marshall Challenge as an interim partnerships coordinator. He’s a multidisciplinary journalist who bridges the areas between journalism, information and the general public by way of collaboration, visible storytelling, viewers engagement, product and design improvement. Over 10 years at MPR, Lager constructed partnerships and labored on award-winning tasks just like the Peabody and Murrow-winning “Betrayed by Silence,” on the abuse of the Catholic Church. After MPR, he labored on numerous group tasks, together with a pop-up newsroom protecting the homicide trial of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin. Lager can also be an adjunct college on the Missouri Faculty of Journalism educating Multimedia Planning and Design, emphasizing audience-first and accessible digital tasks.
The Marshall Challenge – St. Louis will co-publish lots of its tales with native publications to help the way in which different native newsrooms cowl prison justice themselves. This follows an analogous mannequin to newsrooms in Cleveland and Jackson, Mississippi.
The Missouri Basis for Well being’s three-year grant will allow The Marshall Challenge to rent workers and construct capability in Missouri. The Joan & John Vatterott Household Basis can also be supporting this initiative.
“We stay dedicated to strengthening the journalistic infrastructure in Missouri and constructing a pipeline of reporters who will stay within the state to inform our tales,” stated Missouri Basis for Well being Vice President of Strategic Communications Courtney Z. McCall. “We see partnerships like this one as a step towards reaching well being fairness and enjoying a job in altering programs that function a barrier in fixing the advanced well being problems with our communities.”
