ProPublica and The Texas Tribune announced Thursday that Zach Despart is joining their investigative initiative as a reporter.Before joining the unit, Despart covered politics and later became an enterprise and investigative reporter for the Tribune. While in those roles, he collaborated with ProPublica on multiple stories. He starts on Sept. 2.
Despart was integral to an investigation by ProPublica, the Tribune and FRONTLINE about the failed police response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which was awarded the 2024 Collier Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. Notably, when ProPublica, the Tribune and many other news organizations encountered roadblocks with public records, Despart obtained a massive trove of investigative files that formed the basis for much of the subsequent reporting.
Among the stories Despart has worked on with ProPublica was a piece with reporter Lomi Kriel that examined the role that Texas Department of Public Safety officers played in response to the shooting, an impactful collaboration with The Washington Post about the flawed medical response and a look at how officers’ fears of the attacker’s rifle affected their response.
More recently,Despart reported on how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has increasingly hired private law firms, often those with whom he has personal or political ties, to argue cases on behalf of the state, rather than relying on the hundreds of attorneys who work in his office.
Before joining the Tribune, Despart was a reporter with the Houston Chronicle.
“We could not be more thrilled that Zach is joining the team at this critical moment. Texas is at the center of many of the nation’s key developments, and what happens in the state has far-reaching implications,” said Zahira Torres, editor for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative. “Zach’s talent, collaborative spirit, tenacity and sourcing have not only contributed to necessary past coverage of the state but will be key to the team’s continued investigative and accountability-focused reporting.”
“I am honored to join the journalists at ProPublica, whose work I have revered since I was in college,” Despart said. “I’m thrilled to continue my career in Texas, which so desperately needs investigative reporting, and to continue partnering with the Tribune.”
In 2020, ProPublica and the Tribune began a first-of-its-kind collaboration to publish investigative reporting for and about Texas. Under the jointly operated investigative reporting unit, both organizations publish the team’s stories, which are distributed for free to news organizations in Texas and beyond.
