Agricultural workers in Oregon

Shannon Sollitt

Shannon Sollitt is a bilingual journalist covering agricultural labor in Salem, Oregon for the Statesman Journal. A multimedia journalist, Sollitt’s career started in her hometown of Jackson, Wyoming, reporting breaking news, local politics, housing and economic injustice for various news outlets. Her coverage of sexual violence prompted curriculum changes in the local high school. Sollitt says that there are few things she knows with certainty: words are powerful. Even small ones carry weight. She strives to use them to tell stories that heal, that help, that hold a mirror up to the world and ask it to change. Sollitt holds a master’s in journalism from Boston University and a bachelor’s from Willamette University.

Statesman Journal

The Statesman Journal covers the middle section of the Willamette Valley between Oregon’s coastal mountain range and the Cascade Mountains. The Gannett-owned newsroom is based in Salem, the state capital, about an hour from Portland and the Oregon coast. Its primary mission is governmental accountability and watchdog reporting in and around Salem and state government.

Dora Totoian

Dora Totoian reports on issues affecting agricultural workers in the mid-Willamette Valley for the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. Before coming to the Statesman, Totoian covered city government for the News-Register in McMinnville, the heart of Oregon's wine country. She reported on land use, housing, and the disproportionate effects of the pandemic. Totoian was born in Romania and grew up in southern Oregon. She graduated from the University of Portland with a B.A. in Spanish and political science in 2020, but credits her work as a reporter and later the opinion editor at The Beacon, the student newspaper, as having the biggest impact on her.

Statesman Journal

The Statesman Journal covers the middle section of the Willamette Valley between Oregon’s coastal mountain range and the Cascade Mountains. The Gannett-owned newsroom is based in Salem, the state capital, about an hour from Portland and the Oregon coast. Its primary mission is governmental accountability and watchdog reporting in and around Salem and state government.