Reagan Ryan covers climate change and the environment across Central Florida as a multimedia journalist for Spectrum News 13 in Orlando, Florida. She recently graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, where she earned a master’s degree in investigative journalism. She’s covered public housing as a reporter at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and policing as a data and documentary journalist for the Carnegie-Knight News21 collegiate reporting initiative. She specializes in video and digital storytelling. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Florida State University, where she majored in editing, writing and media. Growing up in Daytona Beach, Florida, Creamer became interested in pursuing journalism by watching her local news stations, like News 13, cover hurricanes and storms.
Beat: Climate change and environment
In 2017, Cornell University estimated nearly two million Floridians will be forced to relocate because of rising sea levels. Since then, predictions of extreme heat, more severe hurricanes, harsher flooding, and other climate change-induced hazards have only gotten worse. The climate crisis has local implications for the City of Orlando, intersecting with everything from housing to jobs to water access. At the same time, Orlando is a national leader in energy efficiency, is working toward becoming a zero-waste city, and is trying to create a local food and transportation system that supports climate goals. This urban, climate-focused beat will investigate the ripple effects of climate change on the local level, telling character-driven, compelling stories that illustrate the real-world impacts of forces seemingly beyond our control. This beat will also look at how the levers of power are responding to climate change, bringing a local, human, solutions-oriented lens to the problem. Reporters interested in this beat don’t want to tell generic climate stories—they want to dig deeper to create meaningful reporting that will make a difference.