Anna Phillips joins L.A. Times as education reporter

Anna Phillips has joined the Los Angeles Times as a member of the Metro education team.

Phillips most recently covered legal affairs and the criminal justice system for the Tampa Bay Times.

In announcing her hiring, Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin said Phillips has great talent both for investigative work and for putting a human face on complex legal issues.

As an example, he cited her story about the indifference of a judge and lawyers to the low IQ of a woman who had tried to smother her baby, which led the defense lawyer to resign from the public defender’s office as the case was reviewed.

In Los Angeles, Phillips will cover the nation’s second-largest public school system. She’s already covered the nation’s largest, New York City public schools, for Chalkbeat and for the New York Times.

Phillips is a graduate of Columbia University.

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