Prior to joining Athens County Independent, Ryan Di Corpo was managing editor of Outreach where he won a Catholic Media Award for a months-long investigation into the violent persecution of LGBTQ refugees in East Africa. He twice represented Outreach at the White House. Most recently, he has collaborated with the National Catholic Reporter on its series investigating clergy sex abuse. He is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Boston Magazine, U.S. Catholic and America, where he previously worked as an O’Hare Fellow. He
holds a B.A. in film from Fordham University, where he was the culture co-editor of its journal-of-record, and an M.A. in journalism from Northeastern University. Di Corpo was part of a Northeastern reporting team honored at the 47th Boston/New England Emmy Awards for the best college newscast of 2023. Di Corpo was recognized at Northeastern for academic excellence and professional ethics.
Beat: Housing quality, access and affordability in an Appalachian county
Like many communities nationwide, Athens County has a housing crisis, with factors including aging housing stock, decreasing housing supply, poor code enforcement, inadequate infrastructure and source of income discrimination. This crisis is most acute for the 24% of residents who live in poverty (one of the highest rates in the state), but affects all but the wealthiest members of the community. The housing reporter will investigate the roots and impacts of the problem, as well as covering ways that community institutions are attempting to address it.