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.
Beat: Rural communities in Western Kentucky-Southern IL-Northwest TN.
Rural communities in this area have a significant disparity in wealth and income. The income disparity, coupled with population loss, requires this multimedia reporter explores how the combination of the income disparity and population loss affects economic opportunity