ProPublica announced today that three reporters will be joining its newsroom: David Epstein, Nina Martin and Megan McCloskey. Epstein will focus on environment and energy, as well as stories that tap into his deep expertise in sports and sports science. Martin will write about sex and gender issues. And McCloskey will cover the military and the Department of Defense.
David Epstein comes to ProPublica after spending most of the last seven years at Sports Illustrated, where he was a senior writer. He has authored or co-authored some of SI’s most high profile investigative stories, including one that exposed Alex Rodriguez’s steroid use. Prior to SI, Epstein was the first reporter at Inside Higher Ed, a Washington start-up, and also covered crime for the New York Daily News. Epstein has won a number of awards for his science writing, including the Society of Professional Journalists 2010 Deadline Club Award and Time Inc.’s Henry R. Luce Award for public service. He is a former ProPublica intern and also the author of the recently published “The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance.” He has a master’s in environmental science from Columbia University.
Nina Martin has more than 30 years of experience as a reporter and editor specializing in women’s, legal and health issues. Prior to ProPublica, Martin spent much of the last decade at San Francisco magazine as its articles editor, and before that, executive editor. She supervised the magazine’s 2009 investigation of how CDOs helped a family of unethical landlords take over much of the San Francisco apartment rental market in the mid-2000s (a finalist for a National Magazine Award) and reported and wrote the magazine’s 2004 investigation into why wrongful convictions in California are so difficult to overturn (also an NMA finalist). Her career includes stints at the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, and the International Herald-Tribune. Martin’s freelance reporting has also appeared in several national magazines, including Mother Jones, The Nation, Elle and other women’s magazines. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Megan McCloskey has worked at Stars and Stripes as a national correspondent since 2009. She has reported breaking national defense news from several conflict and disaster zones, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, and has covered military operations in the Pacific. Her three-part series on a family’s struggle with the Department of Veterans Affairs to care for their severely wounded son was a finalist for a Livingston Award and ASNE’s Distinguished Writing Award for Nondeadline writing. And her investigative work about military suicides has been cited by members of Congress. Prior to Stars and Stripes, McCloskey was a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun covering the 2008 presidential and senate campaigns. She’s been an editor on the AP’s Asia desk in Bangkok and covered religion for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. McCloskey graduated from the University of Missouri with bachelors’ degrees in journalism and political science.
“We’re very pleased to add such talented writers to our team,” said ProPublica managing editor Robin Fields. “The subjects they will cover are ones of great priority to us and offer opportunities for powerful accountability journalism.”
The additions bring the total number of full-time journalists at ProPublica to 41.
