A year-long reporting project to examine barriers to maternal health care access in rural Louisiana has received support from the renowned Pulitzer Center, the organization announced Friday. 

New Orleans-based freelance journalist Lorena O’Neil and the Louisiana Illuminator are one of nine Fellows and news partners chosen for the Pulitzer Center’s inaugural StoryReach U.S. cohort. The project will involve reporting in-depth stories and exploring innovative engagement activities to expand the reach and impact of journalism with audiences across the United States. 

Unlike other fellowships, the project will entail identifying audiences and engagement strategies from the outset of the StoryReach Fellowship, ensuring the people who most need to be reached can benefit from the published reporting.

The Story Reach U.S initiative responds to challenges faced by local and regional news outlets across the United States. It represents the Pulitzer Center’s commitment to staying at the forefront of the world’s most innovative and consequential reporting, with journalism and engagement as the key elements for mobilizing society.

“We are tremendously honored to have the support of the Pulitzer Center for this endeavor,” Illuminator editor-in-chief Greg LaRose said. “Its backing reflects the importance of the issue we’re exploring as well as a key mission of our news organization — explaining how policy impacts people by telling their stories.”

O’Neil is a Paraguayan-American freelance journalist who writes narrative features, in-depth profiles, and investigative news stories on culture, gender, inequity and politics. Her work has appeared in publications including Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Elle and The Guardian. One of her most recent projects, “Defending a Vanishing Home,” looks at how the loss of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands affects the indigenous people who’ve lived there for centuries. 

“Given the high maternal mortality rates in Louisiana, particularly for Black women, I look forward to having this incredible support to investigate how rural communities are impacted as the reproductive health space changes in the state,” O’Neil said. “As hospitals increasingly rely on technology in health care, I’m interested in seeing how this affects medical inequity. I’m honored to work on this with the Pulitzer Center and the Illuminator.”

The Pulitzer Center, based in Washington, D.C. was founded in 2006 to provide support for enterprise reporting in the United States and across the globe. Thousands of journalists and educators are part of its networks that span more than 80 countries. 

Work from Pulitzer Center-supported journalists and newsrooms reaches tens of millions of people each year through its news media partners and an audience-centered strategy of global and regional engagement.