Moe Clark joins InvestigateWest as a collaborative investigative reporter

Moe K. Clark, an award-winning investigative journalist with a track record of exposing wrongdoing and inspiring change, is joining InvestigateWest as a Washington State University Murrow News Fellow.

Clark is the newest addition to the growing newsroom at InvestigateWest, a nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism that holds the powerful to account and helps shape public policy. In her role as a collaborative investigative reporter, Clark will partner with local newsrooms across Washington to produce reporting that they might not otherwise have the resources to pursue.

Clark has reported on the criminal justice system, homelessness and the environment for news organizations in Colorado; she most recently worked as a data reporter for the Denver Business Journal. Her three-part investigation into Colorado’s community corrections systems, published by ProPublica and The Denver Post in 2022, led to state lawmakers passing legislation requiring independent audits of the facilities. She has also published stories exposing how Denver officials were conducting sweeps of homeless camps in contradiction to CDC guidelines and examining how the COVID pandemic influenced prison policies in Colorado.

“I’m honored to be joining the talented InvestigateWest team and equally grateful to be a part of the Murrow News Fellowship, which aims to help fill in critical gaps in Washington’s local news ecosystem,” Clark said.

Clark has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she has also taught journalism. She covered housing and criminal justice for the Colorado Newsline, and worked as a reporter covering politics and general assignment stories for The Colorado Sun.

Clark’s role is supported by WSU’s Murrow News Fellowship program, a state-funded effort to place journalists in communities where there is little news reporting or issues that are undercovered. She starts with InvestigateWest on Nov. 12.

“We’re thrilled to have Moe on the team,” Executive Director Jacob Fries said. “She brings a ton of experience and an impressive track record of impact. She’ll also enable us to collaborate more directly with outlets across the state of Washington.”

As an organization, InvestigateWest believes the most effective way to transform the region’s news ecosystem is through active collaboration, partnerships and talent development. In this way, InvestigateWest can serve as a potent "force multiplier,” supporting and uplifting investigative reporting in underserved communities across the Northwest. Clark’s role is part of that larger effort to collaborate.

InvestigateWest was formed in 2009, after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped printing and a group of laid-off journalists set out to preserve the type of hard, labor-intensive investigative reporting that has been in decline. Over the years, InvestigateWest’s reporting has prompted scores of reforms, including a dozen state laws protecting the environment, workers and foster children.