Here at inewsource we created new roles for three journalists in February, making investments in new investigative coverage areas where our watchdog reporting can spearhead positive community change.
Join us in welcoming these journalists to their new reporting assignments.
Jake Harper, formerly an investigative reporter for a southern Indiana public media station, has joined us as an investigative data reporter focusing on accountability in health care.
In this new role at inewsource, Harper will continue the data-driven reporting on health care and medical issues that has set inewsource apart in San Diego and Imperial counties. He’ll take an enterprise approach to public health issues by using data to uncover original findings and help us present that content in a clear and compelling way, including data visualizations. That visual storytelling may include interactive maps, charts and graphics or other interactive elements. Harper will also help develop computer-assisted reporting skills among his newsroom colleagues with occasional data training and coaching.
By expanding our data training capabilities, Harper’s expertise and experience will help us use data more seamlessly in our storytelling and develop more reader-facing data visualization elements for our website.
Harper comes to us from WFYI, where he was a reporter for a Midwest health reporting collaboration based at the station. He also was co-host of Sick, a podcast about what goes wrong in the places meant to keep us healthy.
Sofía Mejías-Pascoe has launched a new border and immigration beat, where she’ll be conducting accountability reporting from both sides of the border. Mejías-Pascoe has done terrific work for us as a general assignment reporter covering criminal justice matters and important issues affecting day-to-day life in San Diego and Imperial counties.
Mejías-Pascoe has interned at various local papers including San Diego CityBeat, Voice of San Diego and The San Diego Union-Tribune. She has covered many beats over the years, from local politics at her college paper, the Daily Nexus, to higher education at Voice of San Diego to courts and crime at the Union-Tribune.
She’ll pursue character-driven storytelling about issues that challenge, define and distinguish the U.S.-Mexico border region, producing stories that explain the interconnectivity of immigration and the border with life in Southern California. With this new beat, we aim to dispel misinformation, expose wrongs and inequities and hold those responsible accountable.
Recently, she reported on the COVID-19 surge taking place at a San Diego detention center that houses U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. She’s also reported on the efforts by some southeastern San Diegans to cease paying thousands of dollars for a special sanitation district to keep their neighborhoods clean.
As a former inewsource intern, Mejías-Pascoe co-reported stories on pandemic parties in a downtown San Diego high-rise apartment building and COVID-19 deaths among jail and prison inmates that went uncounted.
She graduated in June 2021 with a degree in communication from UC Santa Barbara. She is a member of the San Diego/Tijuana chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Anissa Durham, a former inewsource intern, has begun work with us as a part-time general assignment reporter. Durham will cover issues including infrastructure that affect San Diego residents and neighborhoods.
In her previous reporting, Durham interviewed the city’s first ever chief race and equity officer and talked to community leaders about their expectations for the new post. She also examined the city’s “Sexy Streets” plan to improve infrastructure in historically neglected communities, talked to neighbors in Logan Heights and La Jolla and examined whether the $40 million set aside would actually address the problem. In her new role, Durham will expand on this community-focused reporting, finding out what issues concern area residents.
In addition to her inewsource internship, she previously interned for the Union-Tribune. At the newspaper, she covered stories about education, local politics, COVID-19 and the criminal justice system.
Durham also served as the editor-in-chief as an intern for L.A. STYLE Magazine where she wrote about fashion, style and culture and she worked at J. Walcher Communications as a marketing and public relations assistant. She has also freelanced for Voice of San Diego, PBS SoCal and The Objective.
Durham graduated in September 2021 with a bachelor’s in integrated marketing communications from National University. She is a member of the San Diego Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and the San Diego/Tijuana Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
We believe the addition of these important topic areas will bring us closer to our goal of being a watchdog for all communities in San Diego and Imperial counties, making a difference in the quality of life for all their residents.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.