West Virginia

Mountain State Spotlight

This new investigative and enterprise hub is led by longtime West Virginia journalists Greg Moore, a former editor at the Charleston Gazette-Mail; and Ken Ward Jr., a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant winner for his longtime work covering coal mining and other polluting industries.  

Mountain State Spotlight

This new investigative and enterprise hub is led by longtime West Virginia journalists Greg Moore, a former editor at the Charleston Gazette-Mail; and Ken Ward Jr., a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant winner for his longtime work covering coal mining and other polluting industries.

100 Days in Appalachia

100 Days in Appalachia is a digital news publication born the day after the 2016 election in response to the national narrative that reduced our region to a handful of narrow stories. Our mission is to share the diverse stories of the 13 states that make up this region, which stretches from the Rust Belt to the Black Belt, by working with local voices to apply a cultural lens to what’s happening in our backyards and share what that means for the rest of the world.

Caity Coyne

Caity Coyne was the editor-in-chief of West Virginia University’s award-winning, independent student newspaper, The Daily Athanaeum, and a reporting intern at the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Coyne is originally from San Diego, CA, but she found a home in West Virginia as a student. As a RFA corps member and Galloway Fellow, Caity reports on the state’s southern coalfields for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. She has tenaciously covered a statewide teachers’ strike and featured a once-booming coal town that may be forced to dissolve as a municipality.  More Caity

Molly Born

Molly Born, a native of West Virginia, worked for six years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she covered crime, local government, and education. In pursuit of the story, she spent the night at a palatial Hare Krishna commune, reported on location from the middle of a four-lane highway, and (politely) commandeered a passing car to hear the verdict in a murder trial. She’s a graduate of Fairmont State University and has a masters in journalism from Northwestern University. She has long carried a bit of West Virginia everywhere she goes — in the form of a tattoo of the state’s motto on her back. As an RFA corps member and Galloway Fellow, Molly now reports for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. She has already investigated the plight of a town whose water was contaminated by a coal mine owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and explored how a lack of reliable internet access is hurting rural economies.  More Molly.

Amelia Ferrell Knisely

Amelia examines poverty and its ramifications in West Virginia for The Mountain State Spotlight. She previously covered similar issues for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and she covered education and children’s issues for The Tennessean in Nashville. She has written extensively about homelessness and poverty, and she previously served as editor of The Contributor, a nonprofit newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness. Her writing on the plight of migrant tomato farmers was nominated for an international news award. Originally from West Virginia, Amelia started her journalism career as a freelance journalist in her hometown. She holds a B.A. from Shepherd University in West Virginia and a master’s degree from Marshall University. Poverty in southern West Virginia Boone County had the highest per-capita income in West Virginia a few years ago, mostly because of the salaries paid to coal miners, but as the coal industry collapsed, that money went away. The region’s economic and social problems mean southern West Virginia is a difficult place to make a living and to raise children. At the same time, early childhood education and adult education and training, important ingredients for individual employment and for a region’s economic prosperity, get squeezed out of coverage by the legitimate demands of covering traditional K-12 schools and colleges and universities. Amelia’s reporting focuses on the large areas of a population left with too few jobs, with a specific focus toward educational opportunities at all levels.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting

West Virginia Public Broadcasting is a public media dual licensee — it holds the sole statewide PBS and NPR licenses in West Virginia. WVPB covers West Virginia and many of the bordering counties of its five neighboring states. WVPB’s content output is primarily audio, but they also produce video for TV and digital platforms. They produce a live television show, The Legislature Today, every weekday during West Virginia’s 60-day legislative session. WVPB has a full-time staff of 52, with several part-time and paid intern positions. The mission of West Virginia Public Broadcasting is to educate, inform and inspire residents by telling West Virginia’s story. Closed Position: This Report for America corps member is based in Charleston, the state capital, and works under the mentorship of senior reporter, Dave Mistich, on the public affairs beat, including coverage of the legislative session. This reporter works primarily in audio. Outside of the legislative session, the focus is on the southern coalfields of West Virginia. This position fills a critical coverage gap for WVPB, while also contributing to government accountability reporting in the region.

Amelia Ferrell Knisely

Amelia covers poverty in southern West Virginia for the Mountain State Spotlight. Previously she covered education and children’s issues for The Tennessean in Nashville. She has written extensively about homelessness and poverty, and she previously served as editor of The Contributor, a nonprofit newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness. Her writing on the plight of migrant tomato farmers was nominated for an international news award. Originally from West Virginia, Amelia started her journalism career as a television reporter in her hometown. She holds a B.A. from Shepherd University in West Virginia and a master’s degree from Marshall University.  

Emily Allen

As a city hall reporter for the Grand Forks Herald, Emily has spent the last year covering government and politics for communities throughout northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Earlier, she interned at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and American Public Media, where she helped produce APM podcasts like Brains On, a science podcast for kids. She earned her B.A. from the University of Minnesota. Covering state government and southern West Virginia Emily is based in Charleston, the state capital, where she helps cover the legislative session at the start of the year. She works primarily in audio. Outside of the legislative session, her focus is in the southern coalfields and other rural counties that have been identified as distressed by the Appalachian Regional Commission.