Lizzie Presser covers health, inequality and how policy is experienced at ProPublica. She was previously a contributing writer for The California Sunday Magazine, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, This American Life and others. Her story “The Dispossessed,” published in partnership with The New Yorker, won the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting and the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism in 2020. She is a two-time finalist for the Livingston Award and the National Magazine Award.
Lizzie Presser
Reporter
When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested
Welcome to Coffeyville, Kansas, where the judge has no law degree, debt collectors get a cut of the bail and Americans are watching their lives — and liberty — disappear in the pursuit of medical debt collection.
Elizabeth Warren Announces Plans to Help Heirs’ Property Owners
The Democratic presidential candidate cited a ProPublica investigation into black land loss in her proposal.
Federal Government Wants to Hear From Heirs’ Property Owners
Ten days after a story about black families losing their land, the USDA scheduled listening sessions to hear from people who have had trouble qualifying for federal programs because their land was passed down without a will.
Their Family Bought Land One Generation After Slavery. The Reels Brothers Spent Eight Years in Jail for Refusing to Leave It.
Why are so many black families losing their land?
How to Close Heirs’ Property Loopholes
What to consider to avoid losing land that has been passed down through generations without a will and is shared among heirs.