CLASS NOTES
M E D I A M AT T E R S
OFF&RUNNING As the new health reporter for The Texas Tribune, an innovative online news source, Marissa Evans, Comm ’13, was front and center for the opening speeches of the state legislative session in 2016. BY STE P HE N FI LMANOWI CZ
Eager for responses to a report showing pregnant women and new mothers in Texas dying in alarming numbers, Evans heard top leaders mention practically every issue but maternal health. She vowed to bring the issue out of the shadows, launching a reporting project that took her to all corners of the state, even Poland, to report on promising strategies there. Her investigation documented how poverty, race, health economics and politics combine to leave many Texas women in peril. Equally impressive were the extras she created with Tribune partners — a resource guide for families, an online questionnaire to guide pregnant women, a well-attended maternal health discussion in a largely
African American community in East Texas and more. “We didn’t want it to be one of those stories that people read and then there’s that ‘Now what?’ factor,” explains Evans. The effort earned her project an award for best explanatory reporting from the Online News Association. Thinking back to her Marquette days, Evans credits reporting experiences in Milwaukee with helping her grow and think “in a more nuanced way about poverty, hunger, criminal justice and inequities in general.” As the recently named social issues reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, she’s on track for fresh opportunities to explore the underlying conditions influencing people’s health.
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