Yue “Stella” Yu has joined The Dispatch newsroom staff as its local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
In that role, Yu will provide coverage of the city and county governments. Her work will not only include city council and county board of supervisors meeting coverage, but also features and enterprise stories about how their policies affect the citizens. She began work at The Dispatch on Monday.
Yu, 24, is a Chinese native, whose interest in reporting on politics brought her to the United States. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in December.
She reported on local government and state politics in Missouri while in college. With a love for investigative journalism, she also produced data-driven stories on the opioid crisis, child food insecurity and more while an intern at The Salt Lake Tribune. She most recently covered national politics for the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C.
“The more I covered public policies over the years, the more strongly I felt about the need to write about the real-life impact those policies have on everyday Americans,” Yu said. “It is both challenging and exciting for me to be back to covering local communities. I believe everyone has an interesting story to share, and I’m so honored to tell their stories.”
Managing Editor Zack Plair said Yu’s work ethic and passion for community journalism fit well with The Dispatch’s newsroom mission.
“Stella is a talented young journalist who I’m confident will work as hard as necessary to produce the kind of coverage this community needs,” Plair said. “She is driven, incredibly conscientious and she clearly cares about the work she does. She’s a valuable addition to our newsroom.”
Yu can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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