Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Business news reporter/ Report for America corps member and reporter for Type Investigations, hails from the Windy City, where she grew up reading five local daily newspapers.
While a full-time student at the University of Illinois, Robinson-Jacobs launched a career in print media that has spanned more than 35 years.
She began working full time for the Champaign News Gazette in the middle of her junior year of college, was the first African-American woman to serve as an editor at the Milwaukee Journal newspaper, and helped launch the New Media department of the Los Angeles Times, where she worked for 15 years. The department, which created the forerunner to latimes.com, was launched as the internet was transforming newsrooms across the globe
Robinson-Jacobs joined the Dallas Morning News in 2004 and joined The American, as part of Report for America and Type Investigations, in 2021. There she reports on issues of concern to underserved communities, especially communities of color.
She is the proud mother of Kyra-Michelle Jacobs, a filmmaker and acting graduate from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
She can be found on Twitter at @krobijake.
