Marissa Evans joins The Times as a health reporter focusing on communities of color

The following announcement was sent on behalf of Deputy Managing Editor Shelby Grad.

Marissa Evans is joining the Los Angeles Times as a health reporter with a focus on covering Southern California’s communities of color. She comes from the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, where she writes about social issues and has been at the center of both their pandemic coverage and reporting on the killing of George Floyd.

Evans’ background made her an ideal choice. She has a deep history of writing about inequities in housing, healthcare and access to social services. As Evans told us: “The pandemic has laid bare the disparate impact on communities of color and how our healthcare system was ill prepared to consider how inequality determines who lives or dies from COVID-19. I want to be on the frontlines telling those stories.”

Before the Star Tribune, Evans covered healthcare and human services for the Texas Tribune and was a healthcare policy reporter for CQ Roll Call in Washington, D.C. While at the Texas Tribune, she won the 2018 Online News Assn. award for a project on Texas maternal mortality.

Her work has led to safer work conditions for Texas health officials working in a mold-ridden building, exposed a system of private Minnesota hospitals seizing tax refunds of some of its poorest patients and illuminated the hidden trauma Black communities face after Floyd’s death. She is also a trainer with the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a program created to increase the ranks of journalists of color in the field of investigative reporting.

Evans starts in March.