Piper Hudspeth Blackburn

Piper Hudspeth Blackburn covers the Kentucky statehouse for The Associated Press, where she concentrates on issues affecting Appalachia. Before joining Report For America, Hudspeth Blackburn covered politics in Washington, D.C. for audiences in upstate New York and Texas while a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill D.C. program. She grew up in Burlington Township, New Jersey, and graduated cum laude with a B.A. from the University of Southern California, where she majored in journalism and history, focusing on past and present intersections of policy, race and mass media in downtown Los Angeles. She was designated a Renaissance Scholar by the university and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She received a graduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern in May 2020.

Associated Press

The Associated Press is a global news agency that began 172 years ago as a cooperative of five New York City newspapers. With 263 locations in more than 100 countries, AP provides journalism to roughly 15,000 media outlets around the world. AP sets standards for ethics and excellence, and has won 52 Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 gold medal for Public Service for an investigation into labor abuses in the seafood industry, reports that freed more than 2,000 slaves. AP’s seven news bureaus in the northeast U.S. provide vital local and regional news to 378 newsrooms.