Multimedia Journalist

Aaricka Washington

Aaricka is a journalist based in Los Angeles. She was recently an associate editor and reporter at LAist, a local NPR affiliate in Los Angeles. In her role, she developed strategies and collaborated on stories with a team for a daily podcast called How To LA. She grew a loyal, engaged audience through various forms of impactful, captivating multimedia storytelling. Aaricka has a passion for reporting stories that center students and marginalized communities in L.A.One of her favorite parts about being a journalist is organizing in-person community events that bring in new audiences to LAist. She's looking forward to hosting events and moderating panels. She enjoys speaking to K-12 and college students about the lessons she's learned navigating the journalism field. She also has a passion for doing sensitivity readings for news media work.Before working at LAist, she was an education reporter at Chalkbeat Indiana and the Austin American-Statesman. She has written for The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Time Magazine, Capital B and several local news publications across the country.In her past life, before professional journalism, she was a Teach for America corps member in Houston, Texas teaching Black, Latino and Southeast Asian kids in low-income schools.She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University-Bloomington.