Melissa Hellmann on Muck Rack

Melissa Hellmann

Verified
(She/Her)
Philadelphia
As seen in: Guardian US, The Guardian, MSN, Yahoo Entertainment, Yahoo Life, Business Insider, MSN UK, The Washington Post, TIME, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News, Yahoo News UK and
Covers:  Social issues, health, criminal system, race, gender, housing, immigration, politics, economic inequality.

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Melissa Hellmann’s Biography

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I'm an award-winning reporter who covers racial, gender and economic inequality. My character-driven stories expose practices that disproportionately impact marginalized communities, and hold power accountable.

My reporting has taken me to the homes of migrant families in the outskirts of Beijing, China; Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank; and a Tacoma, Washington detention center where detainees alleged their medical needs were ignored. Along with being featured in local and national radio …

Melissa Hellmann’s Journalist Portfolio

Portfolio

Portfolio

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Articles

Gullah Geechee people offered chance to save family properties passed down through generations

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By Melissa Hellmann 
| Yahoo News UK
In a move that protects vulnerable people from forced property sales, South Carolina recently enacted an act that could help families keep land that has been passed down for generations. The Heirs’ Property Tax Relief Act, signed into law by Henry McMaster, the state’s governor, on 15 May, prevents counties from reassessing property values when heirs clear their property titles, or resolve disputes about the ownership.
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‘It didn’t seem real’: the Black mushroom hunters unearthing the US’s essential fungi

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By Melissa Hellmann 
| Yahoo Life
On her typical walk in the woods in Newton, Massachusetts, something stopped Maria Pinto in her tracks. She spotted what appeared to be a glowing yellow figure with a metallic sheen among the pine needles on the ground. It was the first time Pinto was enthralled by a mushroom – the American yellow fly agaric, a poisonous fungus that is relatively common where Pinto lives in Massachusetts.
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Microsoft Cares About Your Privacy Texas children's hospital to create first detransition clinic in win for Trump

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By Melissa Hellmann 
| MSN
One of the largest pediatric hospitals in the US is creating a clinic that officials say will be a place for transgender youth to detransition to the sex they were assigned at birth. The news came on Friday, when Texas children's hospital reached a settlement agreement with the state's attorney general and the US justice department over allegations that the Houston-based medical center billed Texas Medicaid to cover gender-affirming care under false diagnosis codes, among other claims.
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Awards

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SABEW’s Best in Business Award

2023 - Explanatory — small division

I contributed to a series that looked at how state taxes disproportionately impacts low-income people, which won first place in the national SABEW awards.

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NICAR Fellowship

2023

I received a NICAR fellowship from IRE to attend the 2023 NICAR conference, which covered admission, hotel and travel costs.

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Solutions Journalism Network’s Journalists of Color Fellowship

2023

I am one of nine selected for the nine-month fellowship that trains mid-career journalists of color to move into leadership and management positions.

New Bridge Program

2022 - Transatlantic Exchange Fellowship

I was selected to participate in a highly competitive, fully-funded transatlantic exchange program throughout Germany and Belgium in Oct. 2022 with Atlantik-Brucke.

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National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award

2022 - Features

The article 'Zoom bombings that target marginalized people spark demands for legal protections' was a features story newspaper finalist in the 2022 NABJ Salute to Excellence award.

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2022 - Arts and Culture Reporting

My article titled ‘A renewed cultural focus in White Center bolsters sense of Khmer community’ placed second in the Society of Professional Journalists contest out of work from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

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Lenfest Next Generation Award

2022 - Professional Development Grant

As a Lenfest Next Generation Fund winner, I used the award to attend an Investigative Reporters & Editors data journalism bootcamp where I upleveled my data skills.

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2019 - Investigative reporting

First-place award in SPJ’s Northwest Excellence contest for an article about alleged medical negligence at the Northwest Detention Center.

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2019 - Food, travel and lifestyle

Second-place award for an article about the closure of a Cambodian restaurant, and its impact on the local Khmer community.

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2018 - Crime and Justice Reporting

First place award for the Pacific Northwest chapter of SPJ for an article about the Block the Bunker coalition, which successfully convinced the city to halt construction of what was slated to be the most expensive police station in the nation.

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Surda Reporting Fellowship

2016

As a yearlong reporting fellow, I covered the criminal justice system and reproductive health throughout the nation for YES! Magazine. I completed the role by reporting a series on access to reproductive health care in Kentucky.

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