Alison Dirr on Muck Rack

Alison Dirr

Verified
Milwaukee
As seen in: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, MSN, MSN Canada, Yahoo Entertainment, The Washington Post, USA Today, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News, Aol, Yahoo Finance, U.S. News and World Report and
City government reporter, sometimes county gov, @journalsentinel | via @PostCrescent @WausauHerald & @WisWatch
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Articles

Kids should be tested for lead regularly. In Milwaukee, that’s not happening

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By Alison Dirr Verified, Eva Wen Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Shyquetta McElroy is on a mission. Posted up at her kitchen island one Friday morning, she has a single aim: getting as many students as possible tested for lead poisoning at Clarke Street School the next week. The challenge: making sure parents give their permission. McElroy – a leader with the resident-led Coalition on Lead Emergency, or COLE – knows her work is urgent. The first step to getting help is getting tested. But the city of Milwaukee has a problem.
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Milwaukee lead testing plummeted in the pandemic. Here's why that matters

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By Angela Peterson Verified, Alison Dirr Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Follow Milwaukee lead testing plummeted in the pandemic. Here's why that matters Santavious Tavion Tatum, 10 months, sits with his mother, Bridget Henderson, while he's tested for lead by a medical professional from Children's Wisconsin. The testing took place during a Cooking with COLE event at Hephatha Lutheran Church, 1720 W. Locust St. in Milwaukee, on Sept. 29. Henderson was concerned about chipped paint on her son's crib and decided to bring him in. The child's results were negative.
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A timeline of how Milwaukee's lead program was built up, then fell apart

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By Alison Dirr Verified
| Yahoo Verified
Decades ago, federal officials dubbed the Milwaukee Health Department's childhood lead program the "strongest in the nation." But by 2018, the program tasked with responding to children with lead poisoning was wracked by scandal and dysfunction. Those hurt the most were the city's most vulnerable children. It's taken years to rebuild. Here's how it happened – and who was in charge during the program's periods of growth, decline and revival.
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