Stefania Lugli is a watchdog and community reporter for The Wichita Beacon, a nonprofit online news outlet in Wichita, Kansas. She covers Wichita communities that have been forgotten by the local media. This multimedia reporter has worked as a metro correspondent for The Boston Globe, and earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Emerson College in 2020. Born into a Venezuelan family, Lugli grew up in Cape Coral, Florida, is fluent in Spanish and is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She interned with The GroundTruth Project and with the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting in Boston. In 2019 she won a scholarship to participate in the Knight Foundation’s NAHJ Student Project. Lugli enjoys being a plant mama and is waiting for the day she can swim with the manatees.
Beat: Watchdog reporting in Wichita
This reporter writes watchdog stories from communities that have been forgotten by local media, but that are interested in and affected by our journalism. Relying heavily on engagement journalism, this reporter helps us earn the trust of these communities, tell their stories and provide them with information they need to make their communities stronger. The reporter works closely building and working with the Wichita Beacon Community Ambassadors program to identify information gaps in the local news ecosystem, and find new and innovative ways of distributing news and information to underserved communities. They also write stories that hold local leaders accountable for serving all of their constituent communities — not just a select few.