Annie Waldman

Reporter

Photo of Annie Waldman

Annie Waldman is a reporter at ProPublica covering health care. A piece she published with The New York Times on a New Jersey student debt agency prompted a new law and several new bills, aimed at increasing consumer protections for student borrowers and their families. Following her reporting on the largest accreditor of for-profit colleges, the U.S. Department of Education stripped the agency of its powers. Her reporting with Erica Green of The New York Times led to a federal civil rights investigation of discrimination against Native American students on a reservation in Montana.

In 2018, she contributed to the “Lost Mothers” series, which investigated the high rate of maternal mortality in the United States. This series won the 2018 Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting, received a George Polk Award, a Peabody and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for explanatory reporting. Following her reporting on maternal mortality in New York, the city launched a $12.8 million initiative to reduce maternal deaths and complications among women of color.

She graduated with honors from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, where she was the recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship and the Brown Institute Computational Journalism Award. Her stories have been published in The New York Times, the Atlantic, Vice, BBC News, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Consumer Reports.

She has been a finalist twice and won two awards from the Education Writers Association for her education reporting. She has won an award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was a finalist for the Loeb Awards for her reporting with Paul Kiel and Al Shaw on the racial disparity of wage garnishment.

Prior to joining ProPublica, she was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Israel, where she reported on the plight of refugees from Darfur and Eritrea. She was also a recipient of a residency at Cité International des Arts in Paris, France. She had a documentary film in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, on the lives of homeless high school students after Hurricane Katrina, which was later broadcast nationally on PBS. She produced "Phantom Cowboys," a documentary about male adolescence in small industry towns, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018.

Her PGP Key ID is E8F41874.

New Data Reveals Stark Gaps in Graduation Rates Between Poor and Wealthy Students

For the first time ever, the public can see the graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients at over 1,000 schools.

As Pope Pushes to Help the Poor, Catholic Universities Leave Them Behind

Many Catholic colleges leave low-income students with big debts. And wealthy Catholic schools that provide generous support don’t enroll many poor students.

Las universidades más ricas dejan a sus estudiantes más pobres con grandes deudas

Un análisis de ProPublica utilizando nuevos datos del gobierno federal demuestra que algunas de las universidades más ricas del país dejan a sus estudiantes más necesitados con una deuda considerable.

Colleges Flush With Cash Saddle Poorest Students With Debt

A ProPublica analysis of newly available federal data shows that some of the nation’s wealthiest colleges are leaving their poorest students with plenty of debt.

New York City Hospitals to End Filming Without Consent

After a reality television show filmed the death of a man without getting his family’s approval, New York City hospitals have decided to put an end to filming patients without consent.

Justice Alito Defends Lethal Injection Expert Who Did His Research on Drugs.com

The expert ended up prompting a back-and-forth between Supreme Court justices, who narrowly upheld use of a lethal injection drug.

Key Expert in Supreme Court Lethal Injection Case Did His Research on Drugs.com

How the Supreme Court case over lethal injection shows it’s becoming nearly impossible to find experts to defend the practice.

Prolific Pardoner? Obama Grants Clemency to 22 Prisoners This Week, But Has Denied Thousands

Is this the beginning of a new trend in commutations?

Washington Legislature Moves to Limit Schools Pinning Down and Isolating Kids

It’s the latest in a national trend to reduce restraints of school kids.

New York City Lays Out Limits on Restraints And Suspensions

Amid recent calls for reform, New York City’s Department of Education is introducing new restrictions on suspending and restraining kids in city schools.

Connecticut Schools Pin Down and Restrain 'Staggering' Number of Kids

A new state report found one public school student was restrained more than 700 times in one year.

Lethal Rejection: Will the Supreme Court's Lethal Injection Review Kill the Death Penalty?

The Supreme Court is reviewing lethal injection for the first time in seven years. Here's what it means for the death penalty.

Reporting Recipe: How to Investigate Health Professionals

We've launched two 50-state guides to researching the license and disciplinary records of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

New York City Sends $30 Million a Year to School With History of Giving Kids Electric Shocks

New York City kids make up the vast majority of the students at Massachusetts’ infamous Judge Rotenberg Center, and keep getting sent there despite repeated evidence of abuse.

Los Angeles and New York Pin Down School Kids and Then Say It Never Happened

All school districts in the country are required to tell the federal government how many times kids have been restrained in their schools. But some districts aren't following through.

Medical Company May Be Falling Short of Its Patient-Safety Ideals

Masimo Corporation's chief executive is a leading voice in the movement to reduce medical errors, but the Food and Drug Administration says his company isn't properly investigating complaints.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica