Rural communities in Western Kentucky-Southern IL-Northwest TN.

Lily Burris

Lily Burris covers wealth and poverty in Kentucky for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in Louisville. Prior to joining the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, Burris worked as the tornado recovery reporter for WKMS-FM in Murray, Kentucky on a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant. Her work focused on the communities across west and central Kentucky that were devastated by a sudden tornado outbreak in December 2021 and their efforts to come back from the losses they faced. She started in journalism as a reporter at her college newspaper, the College Heights Herald at Western Kentucky University. By her senior semester in college, Burris was the editor-in-chief of the publication, where she also worked as assignment editor, administration reporter, and general assignment reporter. In college, Burris also interned for Louisville Public Media, attended the Danish School of Media and Journalism, and won the Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award from Kentucky Press Association at the collegiate level for her work on a piece focused on sexual misconduct records and Title IX.

Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting

The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom based in Louisville with coverage focused statewide. Our mission is to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens, expose wrongdoing in the public and private sectors, increase transparency in government and hold leaders accountable. KyCIR is the creation of the nonprofit Louisville Public Media, which announced KyCIR’s formation in spring 2013. We are a part of the WFPL newsroom, an NPR affiliate.