ProPublica Illinois announced Louise Kiernan as its first editor in chief on Tuesday.
Kiernan, who worked at the Chicago Tribune for 18 years, comes to ProPublica’s first regional project from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. There, she was an associate professor. At the Tribune, Kiernan was the lead reporter on a project that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. That year, Kiernan was also a finalist in that category for another project.
“With her experience in enterprising accountability journalism and news management, as well as her strong ties across the city of Chicago and state of Illinois, Louise is exactly the right person to lead ProPublica Illinois,” Robin Fields, ProPublica managing editor, said in a press release. “We are thrilled to have her extraordinary talents as we launch our first state-based expansion.”
ProPublica’s currently hiring 10 positions for the Illinois shop.
“We’re eager to get started reporting great stories,” Kiernan said in the press release, “giving people the information they need to understand their region and make decisions, using unassailable facts and compelling narratives to do so.”
Kristen Hare covers the media for the Poynter Institute. Her work for Poynter has earned her a Mirror Award nomination. Hare, a graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, spent 5 years as the Sunday features writer and an assistant editor at the St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, and five years as a staff writer covering race, immigration, the census and aging at the St. Louis Beacon. She also spent two years with the Peace Corps in Guyana, South America. Hare and her family live outside Tampa.
