The Maine Monitor and its publisher, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, are pleased to welcome a new addition to the independent, nonprofit news organization.

Adrienne Washingtonan award-winning investigative journalist, joins the newsroom today as a Roy W. Howard Fellow through the Scripps Howard Fund. She will focus her reporting on rural Maine communities.

Washington won an EPPY Award from Editor & Publisher Magazine for their contributions to a Howard Center for Investigative Journalism project examining the prevalence of the ideology among sheriffs that they must “protect their citizens from the power grabs of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing to enforce laws they believe are unconstitutional or unfair.

Washington earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in diversity studies from the University of Washington, where she won the Pioneer News Group Award for her work on income, gender and language barriers in the Seattle area. She holds a master's degree in investigative journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Her work has been featured in the Associated Press, The Seattle periodS, The Los Angeles TimesABC News and Cronkite News, as well as local news coverage in Puget Sound and the greater Phoenix area.

In the meantime, Emmett Gartner shifts from reporting on rural areas to environmental reporting for The display.

Gartner joined a year ago as a Roy W. Howard Fellow through the Scripps Howard Fund and focuses on accountability and rural communities in Maine.

Since joining the newsroom, Gartner has written stories about rural communities debating the future of their dams and investigated numerous environmental violations across the state.

He earned his master's degree in journalism from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Vermont.

While working as a reporter at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, he helped produce two award-winning investigations: “Printing Hate,” which documented the historic role of newspapers in inciting racist lynchings, and “Mega Billions,” which examined the operation of state lotteries.

Gartner has already reported on health and environment for The Frederick News-Post in Maryland.

The Maine Monitor

The Maine Monitor is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. Our team of investigative journalists uses data- and document-driven reporting to produce stories that have impact.