Aging and seniors

Hannah Critchfield

Hannah Critchfield covers issues affecting people 65 and over for the Tampa Bay Times. A second-year corps member, she previously reported on conditions inside prisons and jails during the pandemic and gender-based health disparities for North Carolina Health News. Critchfield's investigation into the state's underreporting of incarcerated people who died of COVID-19 changed state prison policy. She has worked for the Phoenix New Times, covering immigration and criminal justice, and her reporting has also appeared in The New York Times, VICE, The Intercept, and PBS. Critchfield, from Normal, Illinois, holds a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on workplace abuse within undocumented communities and received the Melvin Mencher Award for superior reporting. Her investigation into the rehiring of university faculty accused of sexual harassment in 2019 earned her the Fred M. Hechinger Award for Education Journalism.

Tampa Bay Times

The Tampa Bay Times is the largest newspaper in Florida, with a rich, award-winning history of investigative, narrative and enterprise journalism. We have 120 journalists covering three counties and the state of Florida. That includes reporters and editors across news, investigations, enterprise, features, sports and digital. Our ownership structure is unique in journalism, preserved by our late visionary owner, Nelson Poynter. He bequeathed the newspaper to a school for journalists here in St. Petersburg, now known as the Poynter Institute, to protect our independence. We take that independence very seriously, focusing our resources on distinct, exceptional reporting. Our mission as a news organization traces back to our founding in 1884: to report the truth and contribute to an informed society. That mission depends on maintaining our credibility within the community. Poynter said it best in 1961: “When we turn to history we can draw inspiration from those who risked their necks and their economic lives to keep the free press free. Every year newspapers are cited for Pulitzer prizes and other awards in recognition of spectacular crusades and courage. But we have an even greater daily triumph of American journalism in helping to fulfill less spectacular but imperative needs. Without these self-government cannot endure.”