Resume

Kurtis Lee
@kurtisalee

The New York Times: Economics correspondent — 2022-present

  • Roving the Western U.S. writing about how the economy affects American workers and the communities where they live

Los Angeles Times: National correspondent — 2014-2022

  • Cover the U.S. outside of California, writing enterprise, news features and narratives on race, immigration, politics, criminal justice and income inequality 
  • Lead rewrite on national breaking news — natural disasters, shootings, protests
  • Have written extensively in recent years about coronavirus, including a three-part series on the pandemic’s impact on members of the Navajo Nation — rural residents, a tribal police officer and contact tracers —which won a National Headliner Award for best news series
  • Profiled the pandemic’s economic toll on several U.S. cities, including Las Vegas, Lordsburg, N.M., and Bisbee, Ariz.
  • Lead correspondent covering the Kyle Rittenhouse and Derek Chauvin trials, as well as the fallout after George Floyd’s killing, including a profile of the Minneapolis neighborhood where he died and people working to build bonds between police and the community
  • Traveled to several swing states to file political enterprise and features stories while covering the 2016 presidential campaign
  • Reported from Ferguson, Mo., during protests for racial justice after Michael Brown’s death in 2014
  • Wrote quick-hit national breaking news on the Realtime news desk

The Denver Post: Reporter — 2011-2014

  • Beat reporter who covered policy at the Colorado legislature, the Colorado U.S. Senate race in 2014 and the Colorado 6th Congressional District race in 2012
  • Covered municipal issues in Aurora, Colo., a suburb of Denver
  • On-air video reporter for Denver Post TV


PBS NewsHour: Staff Writer — 2010-2011

  • Wrote daily news and analysis posts for the NewsHour’s blog “The Rundown”

Education

  • Temple University, B.A., Journalism, 2009

Awards

  • Awarded first place in the National Headliner Awards in 2021 for news series in a daily newspapers top 20 media market
  • Multiple Society for Features Journalism and Los Angeles Press Club citations
  • Colorado Association of Black Journalists, Print Journalist of the Year in 2014
  • Part of the Denver Post team awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Aurora theater shooting