Skip to main content
Andrew Atkins on Muck Rack

Andrew Atkins

Verified
(He/They)
Florida
As seen in: USA Today, Medium, MSN, The New York Times, Yahoo Entertainment, Yahoo Life, Nature, Yahoo Canada, The Globe and Mail, U.S. News and World Report, Detroit Free Press and

Get in touch with Andrew

Contact Andrew, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.

Learn more about Muck Rack

Actions

Share this page

Andrew Atkins’s Biography

Read Full Bio →

Andrew was previously an intern with the Naples Daily News before becoming a full-time reporter. He also interned at the Columbus Dispatch and WKSU News.

Andrew graduated magna cum laude in August 2018 from Kent State University. He completed his education in three years at KSU as a member of the honors college and graduated with honors for completing his senior thesis.

Andrew Atkins’s Journalist Portfolio

'Hurts your brain': Southwest Florida food service workers fight uphill battle

'Hurts your brain': Southwest Florida food service workers fight uphill battle

A fourth wave of COVID-19 is pushing Florida cases to all-time highs with the highly contagious delta variant…

View article →
'Take every moment and love each other': Family shares lessons through ALS, tumor diagnoses

'Take every moment and love each other': Family shares lessons through ALS, tumor diagnoses

Gay Valimont moves her son, 8-year-old Eli, from his wheelchair to his bed. Through the filtered light of the…

View article →
‘A kind of revolution’: Farmworkers' attorney remembered for lifetime of fighting for the underdog

‘A kind of revolution’: Farmworkers' attorney remembered for lifetime of fighting for the underdog

Steve Hitov was a quiet yet instrumental player in dismantling modern-day slavery and establishing a reproduc…

View article →

Articles

It's a scary time to be LGBTQ+. But we can't let fear win. | Opinion

|
By Andrew Atkins Verified, Drew Atkins
| Detroit Free Press Verified
I am not asking you to ignore the perils of what it means to live openly and queerly. I am saying that we have to do it scared. Drew Atkins USA TODAY June 25, 2026, 7:01 a.m. ET I can’t help eyeing headlines around backsliding support for LGBTQ+ folk with a mixture of fear, exhaustion and determination. It’s a frightening time to be openly queer. That’s why we must be so, anyway. A recent Gallup poll identified regressing support for LGBTQ+ issues after nearly two decades of growth.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (2) Issue with article?

It's a scary time to be LGBTQ+. But we can't let fear win. | Opinion Original

|
By Andrew Atkins Verified, Drew Atkins
| USA Today Verified
June 22, 2026, 5:04 a.m. ET I can’t help eyeing headlines around backsliding support for LGBTQ+ folk with a mixture of fear, exhaustion and determination. It’s a frightening time to be openly queer. That’s why we must be so, anyway. A recent Gallup poll identified regressing support for LGBTQ+ issues after nearly two decades of growth. A 2025 survey from the Trevor Project revealed that 1 in 10 LGBTQ+ youth attempted suicide.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (2) Issue with article?

I used National Poetry Month to confront my fear of cringe | Opinion Original

|
By Andrew Atkins Verified, Drew Atkins
| USA Today Verified
April 30, 2026, 5:06 a.m. ET Just post it. I’m not sure if I’m saying this to the wannabe poet or the Gen Zer or millennial whose fear of invoking cringe leaves their finger quaking over the upload button, but my message is the same. At the beginning of April, National Poetry Month, I decided to get vulnerable. To embrace creativity and face any self-imposed or (perceived) external rejection, I’d write and post a poem as a daily exercise. For the past month, my journal factory exploded.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (3) Issue with article?
See all 761 licensed articles (808 Total)

Interview

See all →

What was your first job as a journalist?

Working full time, it was an intern on the Metro desk at the Columbus Dispatch. I covered anything they gave me (and some of my own stuff).

Why did you become a journalist?

Short answer: I don't know. Long answer: To learn something new every day and highlight the good in the world.

Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?

I did, but we didn't really actually write news. I used to write opinion pieces for the front page.

Awards

Society of Professional Journalists Award

2019 - Best College Opinion Writing
View Award