Holly Edgell
Managing Editor, Midwest NewsroomContact: hollyedgell@kcur.org
Job Title: Managing Editor
Topic Expertise: Investigative, climate, housing, diversity, inclusion
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Geographic Expertise: Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Florida. Belize.
Education: Kent State University (1995) MA in journalism; Michigan State University (1990) BA in journalism
Language: English; advanced (but not fluent) Spanish
Honors & Awards: Emmy Award for Best TV Newscast (KOMU/2003); IRE Award for Best Podcast (2022 Midwest Newsroom/KCUR Studios); RTDNA Regional Murrow Award for Investigative News (2022 Midwest Newsroom/STLPR)
Memberships: National Association of Black Journalists; Journalism and Women Symposium
About Holly
Holly Edgell is the managing editor of the Midwest Newsroom, a public radio collaboration among NPR member stations in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.
Holly was previously the editor of a four-station collaborative coverage initiative on race, identity and culture. Based at St. Louis Public Radio, she led a team of four reporters in St. Louis, Hartford, Kansas City and Portland, Oregon.
Holly came to St. Louis Public Radio as a journalist with more than 20 years of experience. In addition to working as a television news producer in several cities, in 2010 she launched 12 St. Louis-area websites for Patch.com, the hyperlocal news initiative introduced by AOL.
Also in St. Louis, she took on a wide range freelance reporting assignments for news organizations such as The National Catholic Reporter and the New York Daily News.
In 2012, she was part of the leadership team that launched WCPO Insider (WCPO.com), the first local television news initiative to introduce an a la carte subscription model for exclusive, in-depth content that audiences could not find elsewhere.
She later served as Director of Digital media for KSHB-TV in Kansas City and WEWS-TV in Cleveland.
In addition to newsroom experience, Holly taught journalism at the University of Missouri and Florida A&M University. She was also a member of the first cohort of Google News Lab trainers. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists. Holly holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in media management from Kent State University. Born in Belize, Holly loves travel, true crime and history podcasts and crossword puzzles.
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Union members and labor experts agree that a collective sense of job insecurity and frustration over wages and working conditions are driving activity in the region. -
When the pop star wove the team’s name into a song in Argentina on Saturday, millions of people around the world stopped what they were doing and took to Google. -
A poll from the Middle West Review asked respondents from 22 states whether they consider themselves Midwesterners. The geographic sample included states not usually listed as part of the region. -
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska are part of an emerging “extreme heat belt” that could deliver more scorching days within 30 years. So far, there’s no unified plan to make our dwellings safe in the dangerously high temperatures to come. -
As the nation learns more about the raid of the Marion County Record, staffers at the publication keep working while advocates for press freedom offer support and demand answers from the local police. -
On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that dismayed millions of people who were hoping for debt relief through President’s Biden program. Many of those borrowers live in the Midwest states that brought the case to the high court. -
Legislatures in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, passed new laws decried by LGBTQ+ communities and their allies. Still, the month of June brought exuberant Pride celebrations around the region. -
The departure of the churches in Kansas and Nebraska comes as UMC congregations around the country are debating the UMC position “that all people are of sacred worth and are equally valuable in the sight of God.” -
The American Lung Association's latest “State of the Air” report card shows cities in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska have cleaner air than they used to. But soot from wildfires continues to pose a risk. -
There are no statistics to show how often the accused have invoked Stand Your Ground as a defense. One veteran Kansas City defense attorney says, in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, the facts don’t meet the case.
