ProPublica announced Monday that reporter Amy Yurkanin is joining the newsroom’s unit in the South.

Yurkanin comes to the organization from Al.com, where she worked for almost 10 years, having covered health care, women’s issues and criminal justice. In 2015, Yurkanin and former ProPublica reporter Nina Martin won the October Sidney Award for their stories on Alabama's criminalization of drug use during pregnancy.

A 2022 collaboration with The Marshall Project and The Washington Post, about the incarceration of pregnant and postpartum women in Etowah County, Alabama, led to the release of nearly a dozen people from the local jail. She was also part of The Marshall Project-led team that focused on the plight of Alabamians arrested for drug use during pregnancy and was a finalist for a 2023 National Magazine Award. Yurkanin’s investigation of Medicaid fraud arrests in north Alabama was honored by The Association of Health Care Journalists.

Prior to Al.com, Yurkanin was a journalist in Las Vegas, where her work on racial disparities in redevelopment spending won an award from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. She started her career in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Yurkanin is based in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Amy is deeply committed to groundbreaking journalism that exposes widespread harm,” ProPublica South editor Mara Shalhoup said. “Her decade of work in Alabama, particularly on the state’s efforts to criminalize pregnancy, fits right in with what we set out to accomplish with ProPublica’s team in the South.”

“I’ve long admired ProPublica and its mission to bring to light stories that change the lives of individuals and communities,” Yurkanin said. “I’m particularly excited to take this role covering the South and am looking forward to joining an amazing team.”