Michaela Towfighi reports on struggling middle-class and working-class residents for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. Prior to joining the Monitor full time, she was a summer intern there. A 2022 graduate of Duke University with a degree in public policy and journalism and media studies, she covered education, COVID-19 and the 2020 election and helped edit stories about the Durham County Courthouse for The 9th Street, a Duke newsletter, and North Carolina’s Indy Week. Her story about a family grappling with a delayed trial for a fatal car accident in Concord, New Hampshire won top honors in Duke’s Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism. Towfighi is an American expat who calls London home, despite not having picked up a British accent just yet.
Beat: The "two New Hampshires" project about struggling middle & working class residents
New Hampshire boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates, and the state’s per capita income is consistently among the 10 highest in the country. But the lack of an income tax and sales tax means higher property taxes, putting pressure on lower and middle class homeowners. This reporter tells the stories of those struggling to keep up, generational poverty, a housing crunch, and Concord's refugee resettlement communities.