Monica Vaughan

Monica Vaughan is a freelance investigative reporter and community engagement specialist based in Fresno. Previously, she served as interim engagement editor at the Center for Health Journalism in 2022. She has reported on rural communities in California for nearly a decade as a local newspaper reporter. She covered water for Fresnoland at The Fresno Bee, county government for The San Luis Obispo Tribune and criminal justice for the Appeal-Democrat in the Sacramento Valley. In 2019, she was awarded a McClatchy President’s Award for coverage of the health effects of bad air quality for her reporting as a Center for Health Journalism 2019 California Health Equity Fellow. In 2021, she won first place for Public Service Journalism from the California News Publishers Association and the George F. Gruner Award for public service for a series of stories about contaminated drinking water. She holds a master's degree in communication and society from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree in media studies from Southern Oregon University.