Our Staff

Meet the team behind InvestigateWest

Newsroom Staff

InvestigateWest’s first Roy W. Howard fellow, Aspen Ford is an award-winning journalist specializing in data-driven and narrative storytelling.

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Daniel Walters is the democracy and extremism reporter at InvestigateWest, where he’s written about everything from brawls involving white nationalists in Portland to secretly recorded conversations between politicians and lobbyists in Boise. He joined the organization through Report for America.

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Danielle Dawson is a collaborative investigative reporter and Report for America corps member for InvestigateWest, covering eastern and central Oregon.

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Jacob Fries is InvestigateWest’s executive director. A lifelong journalist, he’s spent his career mentoring reporters, forging media partnerships and managing deep-dive investigations that exposed injustice and changed laws.

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Kaylee Tornay is InvestigateWest's reporter covering labor, youth and health care. A reporter since 2017, she has dedicated herself to rigorous, revelatory journalism that scrutinizes power and equips local communities with knowledge they can use.

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Kelsey Turner is an investigative reporter at InvestigateWest. Her reporting has stretched from her home state of New Jersey to Illinois, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

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Lynnie McIlvain is a creative revenue development professional with a track record of securing six-figure government grants and strong competence in annual and major gifts.

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Melanie Henshaw is the Indigenous affairs reporter at InvestigateWest. She covers Indigenous communities in the region, including coverage of tribal sovereignty, health care and the environment.

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Moe K. Clark is a collaborative investigative reporter covering Washington state for InvestigateWest. Her position is supported by the Murrow News Fellowship, an initiative of Washington State University which aims to bolster coverage of civic issues in underserved communities around the state.

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Rachel Spacek is an investigative reporter covering migrant labor for InvestigateWest through Report for America. She is based in Boise and has covered Latino affairs in Idaho for the last five years.

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Thy Vo is an investigative editor with InvestigateWest. She has been a community journalist covering government, politics, courts and immigrant communities in the West for nearly a decade.

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Whitney Bryen reports on injustice and vulnerable populations for InvestigateWest. A journalist since 2010, she is dedicated to raising marginalized voices and holding power to account especially at the intersection of mental health and criminal justice.

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Wilson Criscione is InvestigateWest’s news and investigations editor. He’s spent more than a decade reporting and supervising major investigations that uncover corruption, misconduct and injustice in the Pacific Northwest.

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