Morgan Casey will join CityView’s newsroom this summer as a Report for America corps member, focusing solely on health care reporting.
She’s among nearly 60 reporters and photojournalists taking new positions at local newsrooms across the country, joining other Report for America journalists reporting on undercovered communities and topics for their second or third year in the national service program.
Report for America has now matched more than 650 journalists with local newspapers, public radio stations, digital platforms, and television outlets, since its launch in 2017.
Casey is a 2023 graduate of the investigative journalism master's program at Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She also earned bachelor’s degrees in media and communications and French from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2022.
“I can’t wait to join CityView as the health reporter this July,” Casey said. “Cumberland County has so many health stories waiting to be told and I am so lucky to be the person who gets to help share them.”
In addition to conducting investigations and producing long-form reporting pieces, Casey has covered sports, news and culture for UMBC’s student newspaper and magazine.
“A dedicated health reporter will allow CityView to cover the underreported and often unreported health issues in our county, where we rank 52 among the state’s 100 counties for health outcomes and 70 for health factors,” said CityView Publisher Tony Chavonne. “Reporting on these issues could lead to policies and programs that make a positive difference in our community.”
Casey’s position is a part of a new Report for America collaborative in North Carolina, led by The Assembly, a statewide news magazine based in Durham and a publishing partner of CityView. The partnership will bring a strong new local news cohort to the state with reporters at The Assembly, CityView, IndyWeek in Durham, WHQR in Wilmington and Blue Ridge Public Radio in western N.C. Beyond working together, the collaboration will extend opportunities for training and event participation with other Report for America newsrooms in the state.
“Report for America extends a welcoming hand to journalists from diverse backgrounds, encouraging them to add their experience, perspective, and talent to local newsrooms nationwide,” said Earl Johnson, vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement at Report for America. “These storytellers help ensure that under-covered communities and issues receive the attention they deserve. Here, journalists find not just a job but a calling — a chance to make a profound difference where it matters most."
The corps members will begin their new assignments in July. Report for America also leverages an innovative three-to-one regional funding match model, paying up to half of a corps member's salary, while its local sustainability team trains newsroom partners to raise the other half from local funders. This approach promotes collaborative investment in local journalism, increasing the chances of sustaining local reporting, for the community, by the community.
"We're excited to expand our team and have Morgan come on board this summer,” said CityView’s Managing Editor, Maydha Devarajan. “Her skillset and commitment to telling meaningful and impactful stories will strengthen both our community and the kind of journalism CityView offers."
CityView Executive Editor Bill Horner III said the organization’s leadership, particularly Chavonne and Tim White, a member of the CityView News Fund board of directors, long ago identified health care reporting as a critical need for readers and the communities the newsroom covers.
“And Morgan already has experience in investigation and research in health care-related areas,” Horner said. “She’ll provide a story or two a week for us while also working on longer-term, ‘deep dive’ reporting projects that will examine why certain measurements and metrics related to health care in Fayetteville and Cumberland County rank so low.”
Casey has also produced photojournalism and used video in storytelling, skills CityView plans to employ in her reporting.
Report for America’s work is made possible by the Knight Foundation, Google News Initiative, Microsoft, Spring Point Partners, Vere Initiatives, Joyce Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Walton Family Foundation in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism, The Hearthland Foundation, The Just Trust, Posner Foundation, Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, Tow Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Park Foundation, Kresge Foundation, and other leading philanthropic partners.
To learn more about Report for America and its efforts to strengthen communities through public service journalism, please visit www.reportforamerica.org.
