Kat Aaron

Producing Octavia's Parables, a weekly podcast hosted by Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown, exploring the writings of Octavia E. Butler.

Reporting on the civil court system and access to justice issues as a 2012 Alicia Patterson Fellow. I visited the 36th District Court in Detroit, Mich. over four years. I wrote about the people who use the court, and the difficulties they face trying to navigate their cases without attorneys.

Editing, writing, reporting, web production and wrangling for a massive project on the lives of working people in America, in collaboration with Donald Barlett and James Steele of Vanity Fair. I built partnerships with locally-focused investigative reporting sites around the country, and collaborated with New America Media, a consortium of ethnic media outlets. I wrote for NBCNews, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mother Jones, and other publications. I developed sources from social media and from… Show more

Editing, writing, reporting, web production and wrangling for a massive project on the lives of working people in America, in collaboration with Donald Barlett and James Steele of Vanity Fair. I built partnerships with locally-focused investigative reporting sites around the country, and collaborated with New America Media, a consortium of ethnic media outlets. I wrote for NBCNews, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mother Jones, and other publications. I developed sources from social media and from FOIAed documents. The project included the publication of a New York Times best-selling book and a companion website. Show less

Researching and writing about the future of journalism, media, and technology, through the Media Policy Initiative of the Open Technology Institute. I was part of a cohort of fellows discussing and strategizing about the future of media. We created media ecosystem profiles for several cities, and collaborated with the OTI staff on operationalizing the findings.

Journalist focused on financial and economic issues. I launched the Center's coverage of the mortgage meltdown, and led an investigation into the decade of warnings on the dangers of subprime mortgage loans. I worked with our data director to analyse data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the TARP program, which identified avenues for reporting. I wrote regular quick-hit blog posts, while keeping pace on long-term investigative deep dives.

Led a growing non-profit, including all fundraising, staff supervision, hiring, curriculum development, and teaching. People's Production House works with high school and middle school students, and low wage workers, training them as radio reporters. PPH also works on media policy to make sure those voices are heard. I wrote training materials, recruited partner schools, taught in classrooms, and supervised story development, editing and production. As our team grew from two to ten staffers, in… Show more

Led a growing non-profit, including all fundraising, staff supervision, hiring, curriculum development, and teaching. People's Production House works with high school and middle school students, and low wage workers, training them as radio reporters. PPH also works on media policy to make sure those voices are heard. I wrote training materials, recruited partner schools, taught in classrooms, and supervised story development, editing and production. As our team grew from two to ten staffers, in three cities, I implemented internal report-back mechanisms and created staff development opportunities. Show less

Identified segments, booked guests and wrote scripts for 3-hour live morning news show. I worked closely with host Deepa Fernandes to set the show's news agenda, balancing our coverage of local, national and international issues as well as arts and culture. I was an occasional guest host for the show, and a regular host of a Friday night politics and music show.

I developed and implemented media strategy for the organization and its campaigns, and coordinated a diverse coalition that won landmark mortgage legislation in New York State. I co-authored a nationally-implemented financial literacy curriculum, and taught train-the-trainer sessions around the country. When paper food stamps and welfare checks were phased out, I worked with public benefits recipients to advocate for consumer protections on the new electronic benefits cards. NEDAP is a national… Show more

I developed and implemented media strategy for the organization and its campaigns, and coordinated a diverse coalition that won landmark mortgage legislation in New York State. I co-authored a nationally-implemented financial literacy curriculum, and taught train-the-trainer sessions around the country. When paper food stamps and welfare checks were phased out, I worked with public benefits recipients to advocate for consumer protections on the new electronic benefits cards. NEDAP is a national leader in education, policy and advocacy around financial services and banking, focused on the two-tiered credit system and subprime lending. Show less