Debbie Truong joins The Times’ education team
The following announcement was sent on behalf of Deputy Managing Editor Hector Becerra and Deputy Metro Editor Stephanie Chavez:
Debbie Truong, a reporter who has chronicled the pandemic crisis in schools, student achievement gaps and key issues buffeting school districts in the Washington, D.C., region, has come “home” to Los Angeles and The Times as the newest member of our Metro education team.
Truong will focus her work on higher education and the challenges confronting the state’s two largest college and university systems: community colleges and California State University.
She has distinguished herself as the education reporter at Washington, D.C, public radio station WAMU-FM (88.5), where her up-close reporting with students, parents and teachers brought classroom issues to life. She juggled multiple responsibilities at WAMU, where she not only reported, produced and edited audio stories, but also wrote compelling online text pieces to accompany them — with photography. We are looking forward to her considerable audio talents in our own newsroom.
Prior to WAMU, Truong worked as a reporting fellow for two terms on the Washington Post’s education team, sealing her commitment to this important beat reporting. She documented a Virginia school district’s use of seclusion and restraint on students with disabilities, and how Black parents rose to dispute the narrative of one of Virginia’s high-performing school districts.
Earlier jobs included covering local government and breaking news at the PennLive/Patriot-News and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Truong earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science at Syracuse University and her master’s in public affairs journalism from American University.
We are proud to say that one of Truong’s earliest journalism experience unfolded in our own Metro newsroom as a summer intern in 2014, where she learned about breaking news on the former L.A. Now. And she grew up and attended public schools in Rosemead. She started Monday.
