Rebecca Plevin joins the L.A. Times as the reporter for its equity initiative

The following announcement is sent on behalf of Deputy Managing Editor Hector Becerra and Deputy Metro Editor Cindy Chang:

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Plevin has joined the Los Angeles Times as the reporter for our new equity initiative.

She comes to us from the Fresno Bee, where she oversaw the bilingual Central Valley News Collaborative, editing stories about the region’s Latino communities for both print and radio. Her team produced award-winning stories about farmworkers toiling amid wildfire smoke and drought, as well as COVID-19’s deadly impact on Latino immigrants.

Before that, Plevin was an immigration reporter for the Desert Sun in Palm Springs. In one story, she profiled the people who pick grapes during the day and clean up after the Coachella music festival at night. To chronicle the lives of farmworkers who travel back and forth across the border daily, she spent 12 hours overnight in a Calexico, Calif., doughnut shop. Her four-part series on a Mexican family’s harrowing experience fleeing cartel violence and seeking asylum in the United States, reported with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, earned a citation from the Overseas Press Club.

Plevin has also reported on healthcare for the public radio stations KPCC-FM (89.3) in Pasadena and KVPR-FM (89.3) in Fresno, as well as the bilingual newspaper Vida en el Valle. She is fluent in Spanish and graduated with a journalism degree from Northwestern University.

In her new role at The Times, Plevin will explore the challenges facing low-income communities and efforts being made to address the economic divide in California, with a particular focus on Southern California and the Central Valley.

The two-year program will include dedicated coverage of socioeconomic issues, such as access to employment and housing, and will examine the human toll of systemic poverty. It is funded by the James Irvine Foundation, an independent foundation based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, whose mission is to expand opportunity for the people of California with a focus on increasing the power to advance economically among low-income workers.

The foundation will sponsor the stories, making them free to read without a subscription. The project will also engage the community in discussions about the economic divide and in exploring a range of solutions through virtual public events based on the coverage.

As with any partnership or initiative, The Times’ newsroom will retain complete editorial control.