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Hi there.
I’m Mackenzie Wilkes, a journalist from North Carolina. I do data-driven reporting on politics and policy with a particular interest on how demographics are shaped by policy decisions. Currently, I’m a fellow at POLITICO where I’ve covered breaking news, education policy, and the 2022 midterm elections. At the heart of my work is people — I strive to capture the nuances and complexities of different communities. I’m always curious about how policy affects people, especially the implications it has on equity. Previously, I was a politics intern at FiveThirtyEight where I contributed to reports on polling and redistricting. I also investigated federal aid to Indigenous communities as an investigative reporting fellow with Carnegie-Knight News21. An Elon University graduate, I served as Executive Director of Elon News Network where I managed our digital platforms. |
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Online learning here to stay, and regulators are trying to keep upFamilies in search of different education options after the pandemic’s disruption of in-person classes are fueling a new wave of the school choice movement — and calls for stricter oversight of online learning. The push for options beyond the traditional public school setting isn’t new, but the pandemic ignited a sense of urgency as schools struggled to reach students. Now, as remote options grow, so does a renewed interest among lawmakers and school leaders to improve the quality and accountability of online schools. |
Jeffrey Collins AP Photo
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Americans don't trust their congressional districts to be drawn fairly. Can anything change that?The United States is in the middle of a once-in-a-decade process: redistricting. And although it’s early — 19 states aren’t expected to finalize their maps until next year — a number of states have proposed maps, and there are debates happening all across the country over which ones to pass. But Americans aren’t necessarily confident that the process will be a fair one. That might be one reason why independent commissions, which aim to empower ordinary citizens to draw map lines, have grown in use since the last redistricting cycle.
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Photo by Beth Wallis
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Yurok Tribe grows solutions in soil of crisisA drought, a pandemic and a landslide — three crises that exposed the food insecurity of California’s Yurok Tribe have ignited members to explore their own solutions. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the peaks of redwood trees on the mountains, the Yurok Tribe Reservation was declared a food desert by the USDA in 2017. The ongoing food insecurity issue worsened when the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with environmental and infrastructure problems, slammed the reservation and surrounding community.
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