Bridge Michigan, Chalkbeat Detroit expand education beat with veteran hire

Award-winning journalist Tracie Mauriello is joining the staff of Bridge Michigan and Chalkbeat Detroit, in a nonprofit newsroom collaboration to provide additional in-depth reporting on state education policy.

Mauriello will report on legislation and policy initiatives coming out of Lansing that impact Michigan schools, often through the experiences of children, parents and teachers.

Bridge will now have two full-time reporters covering education.

“We’re delighted to double Bridge’s education team at a time when schools are so vital to Michigan’s future,” said Bridge Michigan Senior Editor David Zeman. “We see this partnership with Chalkbeat Detroit as a win for students and families across the state.”

Mauriello brings a wealth of knowledge of education and government to the new post. Mauriello served as Washington bureau chief for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where her work included contributions to the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre.

Prior to that, she was an education writer for the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., assistant city editor of the Springfield News-Sun in Ohio, education and municipal government reporter for The Herald in New Britain, Conn., and executive director of the Journalism Association of Ohio Schools. She taught journalism at Urbana University in Ohio and co-wrote a chapter about libel law in the 2006 textbook "Emerging Issues in Contemporary Journalism."

She spent the 2019-20 academic year as a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan.

“I spent the first part of my career covering schools and the second covering state and public policy. Now I get to bring what I’ve learned together, and I see a lot of opportunities there,” Mauriello said.

“There’s a lot at stake next year as students return to in-person learning. My goal is to not just tell readers what’s happening in Lansing but to show them why it matters.”

Mauriello’s reporting will be shared by Bridge Michigan and fellow nonprofit newsroom Chalkbeat Detroit. Chalkbeat focuses on coverage of K-12 schools, with particular emphasis on children who have historically lacked access to high-quality education.

“Chalkbeat and Bridge are innovative news organizations that are thoughtful and deliberate about the kind of journalism they do,” Mauriello said. “It’s nice to be a part of both teams and to build on the good coverage of teaching and learning that both have been providing readers.”

Mauriello joins Ron French, who has reported on K-12 schools, higher education and early childhood education since Bridge was founded in 2011.

You can reach Mauriello at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org; you can reach French at rfrench@bridgemi.com.