Nicole Beemsterboer
Nicole Beemsterboer is the Senior Producer of Investigations at NPR, where she oversees the conceptualization, development, and execution of the network s investigative reporting across all platforms and coordinates the team s internal and external news partnerships.
Since joining the team in 2013, she has produced and edited some of NPR s most ambitious reporting projects, from a series exposing the U.S. military s secret race-based chemical weapons testing program in World War II to uncovering a dramatic surge in complicated black lung, a deadly coal miners disease, in Appalachia. Her work on the 2017 series,
Lost Mothers, with NPR s Renee Montagne and ProPublica s Nina Martin, helped start a national conversation on the state of maternal care across the country.
The American Society of Magazine Editors nominated ProPublica for five of its 2021 National Magazine Awards (also known as the Ellies), which honor excellence in print and digital media. ProPublica was recognized as a finalist for public interest, coverage of race, social media, digital innovation and community journalism.
A series by Lizzie Presser, which highlighted racial disparities in diabetic amputations and kidney care, was nominated for public interest. For years, diabetes has been disabling and killing Black Americans at startling rates, then came COVID-19, which targeted Black diabetics with deadly efficiency. In “The Black American Amputation Epidemic,” trailing a crusading Mississippi doctor, Presser’s immersive reporting told a national story about hospital neglect and government failures, failures that affect millions of Americans with diabetes. As a result, federal legislators introduced a sweeping bill to reduce unnecessary amputations the most significant le
The Chicago Headline Club, the nation’s largest chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, named ProPublica a finalist for 13 Peter Lisagor Awards. The Lisagor Awards honor the best journalism produced across the Chicago region.
ProPublica received six nominations in the Best All Media categories, which span all news mediums and platform sizes; a nomination in the General Interest Daily Newspapers, News Service or Bureau categories for a collaboration with the Chicago Tribune; and six nominations in the Online categories. These projects reflect the depth and range of the newsroom’s collective efforts, from features, data journalism and investigative reporting, to illustrations and newsletters. Winners will be announced virtually on May 14.