Curious by nature, journalist by trade
Jessica Priest is an engagement reporter on The Texas Tribune/ProPublica Investigative Initiative.
She previously helped launch the Fort Worth Report as one of three reporters for the nonprofit news outlet.
Before that, she worked as a reporter for USA TODAY out of the Austin-American Statesman newsroom, the Victoria Advocate and the Temple Daily Telegram.
Her work has often made an impact — be it local officials in Victoria pursuing funding for mental health after she highlighted a gap in services or the state’s highest criminal court granting a death row inmate a new trial after she detailed a prosecutor’s conflicts of interest.
Jessica also has experience reporting on quasi-government bodies and the environment. After she exposed questionable hirings and payments at a port and later a water district in another part of the state, both public entities underwent reforms. After she showed the effects of companies’ air and water pollution on the Gulf Coast, residents organized and regulators took action.
As an engagement reporter, Jessica crowdsources to ensure her team’s journalism reflects and reaches an audience as diverse and big as Texas. Email her at jessica.priest@propublica.org.