A team approach to coverage of gun violence

Humera Lodhi reports for The Kansas City Star where she works as part of a team focusing on gun violence and uses her data skills to offer a deeper understanding of firearms statistics. She is a writer, programmer, multimedia creator and proud Missourian who has reported for various Missouri outlets such as the St. Louis Post Dispatch and KCUR on civil rights legislation, social media extremism and neglected public infrastructure. She was part of an award-winning research team that created a digital database mapping the British suppression of the African slave trade, created and produced a Snapchat series covering the midterm elections for Raycom Media and built an app for journalists that uncovered hidden relationships between topics using artificial intelligence. Lodhi graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and statistics in 2019. Afterwards, she pursued a master’s degree in data journalism from Columbia University.

Kaitlin Washburn reports for The Kansas City Star where she is part of a team examining gun violence in Missouri. As part of the team, Washburn reports in-depth on the politics of guns in the Missouri Legislature. This is her second tour of duty with Report for America. For the past year as an RFA member, she covered the omnipresent agriculture industry in California’s Central Valley for The Sun-Gazette. Prior to that, Washburn covered campaign finance and dark money for the Center for Responsive Politics, recreational cannabis and questionable state health care for The Oregonian and state politics for the Columbia Missourian. In 2019, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. At MU, her emphasis was in investigative reporting, and she spent three years as a researcher for Investigative Reporters and Editors.