We’re thrilled to announce Karina Brown as Underscore’s new managing editor!
Karina has been an Oregon-based reporter since 2005, primarily covering the court system for Courthouse News, in addition to outlets such as Willamette Week. She has reported from a wide spectrum of places, from the chaos of far-right extremist rallies to the hushed decorum of federal courtrooms, and has focused her coverage on environmental issues, policing and tribal sovereignty.
As managing editor, Karina will guide Underscore’s mission to illuminate the strength and vibrancy of Indigenous communities as well as the challenges they face. She will oversee and assist Underscore’s talented reporters on a wide variety of projects, strategize about long-term story choices, manage our organization’s collaborations and partnerships, and do her own reporting for Underscore.
Before becoming managing editor, Karina worked as a freelancer on two extensive reporting projects for Underscore: a collaboration with EO Media Group about sexual violence against Indigenous women and a three-part series exploring Federal Indian Law through the prism of cases and issues in the Pacific Northwest. Those projects will both roll out on Underscore’s website and through our publishing partners this summer.
Karina will also oversee and contribute reporting to a year-long investigation of tribal legal issues in Oregon, examining jurisdictional complications, crime data, funding allocations and more through the lens of tribal sovereignty, self-determination and self-governance — and the systemic limitations imposed upon those rights.
That project is funded through the Data-Driven Reporting Project (DDRP), a partnership between the Google News Initiative and Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Communications. Underscore is proud to be one of 22 awardees nationwide who form the DDRP’s first-ever cohort.
Karina brings supreme journalism skills, compassion and empathy, and deep working knowledge of tribal sovereignty and legal issues to the Underscore team. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome her aboard.
Myers Reece
Executive Director, Underscore News
