T-Squared: Lucy Tompkins is joining us as a New York Times Headway fellow

We are delighted to announce that The Texas Tribune has been selected by the New York Times Headway Initiative, a philanthropically supported initiative that examines the world’s challenges through the lens of progress, to host its inaugural fellow, Lucy Tompkins. Lucy will spend the second year of her two-year fellowship reporting on housing and homelessness in Texas for us and the Times.

Lucy began at the Times reporting for the National desk, contributing to live coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021, and jumping in to cover major news events from winter storms to bombings and mass shootings around the country. Her work with the Headway team began in spring 2021. For Headway’s launch series, Hindsight, she reported on the progress of global efforts to roll back extreme poverty, supply clean drinking water and end deforestation. Since the beginning of her time with Headway, she has been traveling around the country reporting for a project on homelessness, set to launch this summer; her work with the Tribune will allow her to continue that reporting at a state and local level.

Lucy will be based in Austin but plans to travel widely, not just across the state’s biggest cities but also to midsize cities and fast-growing suburbs as well. At the Tribune, she’ll report to Dave Harmon, who will work in tandem with the Times’ Headway team, led by Matt Thompson, a longtime friend (and current board member) of the Tribune. Lucy will regularly collaborate with Joshua Fechter, our Dallas-based urban affairs reporter, who continues to report on housing.

Lucy grew up in Bozeman, Montana. After studying journalism at the University of Montana, she began her career at the Missoulian covering education. A series she reported on unregulated youth treatment programs led to a change in state law and one program’s closure. She went from Montana to Berlin for a Fulbright Fellowship, where she followed the experiences of Syrian refugee women as they integrated into German society, and studied German and photography.

Tickets are on sale now for the 2022 Texas Tribune Festival, happening in downtown Austin on Sept. 22-24. Get your TribFest tickets by May 31 and save big!