Kaylee Tornay

What I Cover
As a reporter, I focus primarily on covering issues that affect people's work, education and health. Those stories can range in complexity from quick investigations to long-term projects that dive deep into data and individual narratives over several months. I'm interested in any story that has a strong focus on accountability, reveals the harm that people are experiencing and can point to possible avenues for improvement.

My Background
I've been an Oregonian for two and a half decades, experiencing every life stage and most major life events in this state. I grew up in Bend, attended the University of Oregon's Clark Honors College (where I cut my teeth at the Daily Emerald, the student newspaper) and got my first job covering schools for the Mail Tribune, the local newspaper in Medford that folded in January 2023. I spent a couple years as an education reporter at the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, before joining InvestigateWest as one of its first full-time staff reporters in August 2022. At each of the newsrooms where I've worked, my investigative reporting has pushed leaders to enact change and picked up top honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the California Journalism Awards.

In 2023, I was selected as one of three Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting fellows with Investigative Reporters and Editors, which led to a yearlong project investigating child care across Oregon.

I'm living in Salem these days, exploring the Willamette Valley with my family. I spend my free time studying great writers, gardening and learning to surf the Oregon Coast.

Ethics and Approach
I think a lot about the trust lost between communities and the media organizations that serve them, and about communities with whom media outlets have rarely bothered to establish trust. I can't change the broad trends, but I can hold transparency, fairness and equity as core values and critical tools to build up credibility with the people in whose orbit I report.

To that end, I adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics to guide my reporting and writing. Those standards help me to accomplish my goals to remain independent and deal fairly with the perspectives of everyone I report on, in every story I produce. If I get something wrong, I'll correct it promptly.

Many of my stories deal with difficult and traumatic topics. I practice trauma-informed journalism in order to minimize harm, relying on resources including the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Style guides produced by those with lived experience, such as the Disability Language Style Guide, and resources from the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and others help me to ensure I am covering people from diverse communities with dignity and respect.

Contact me
Feedback from people, public records and story tips are all critically important for me to do my job. Please feel free to send me any of those by email, direct message on social media or by phone. I also use encrypted messaging platforms including Signal and WhatsApp; please contact me by email for that number. Hablo español.

Email: kaylee@investigatewest.org
Phone: 503-877-4108
X: @ka_tornay
LinkedIn: Kaylee Tornay