Leoneda Inge
Leoneda Inge is WUNC’s race and southern culture reporter, the first public radio journalist in the South to hold such a position. She explores modern and historical constructs to tell stories of poverty and wealth, health and food culture, education and racial identity. Leoneda is also co-host of the podcast Tested, allowing for even more in-depth storytelling on those topics.
Leoneda’s most recent work of note includes “A Tale of Two North Carolina Rural Sheriffs,” produced in partnership with Independent Lens; a series of reports on “Race, Slavery, Memory & Monuments,” winner of a Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists; and the series “When a Rural North Carolina Clinic Closes,” produced in partnership with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.
Leoneda is the recipient of several awards, including Gracie awards from the Alliance of Women in Media, the Associated Press, and the Radio, Television, Digital News Association. She was part of WUNC team that won an Alfred I. duPont Award from Columbia University for the group series – “North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty.” In 2017, Leoneda was named “Journalist of Distinction” by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Leoneda is a graduate of Florida A&M University and Columbia University, where she earned her Master's Degree in Journalism as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics. Leoneda traveled to Berlin, Brussels and Prague as a German/American Journalist Exchange Fellow and to Tokyo as a fellow with the Foreign Press Center – Japan.
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Forty years after Warren County, N.C., residents marched to a landfill to try to stop dump trucks, the EPA is creating a new office charged with advancing environmental justice.
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Dozens of zoos around the United States have decided to vaccinate some of their animals for COVID. There's concern the animals could catch the virus from their handlers.
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Flooding from Hurricane Matthew wrecked hundreds of homes in Princeville, N.C. It's the second time the town has flooded in 20 years. Now residents debate whether to rebuild or just relocate.
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This summer, even the most crowded pools are struggling to hire enough lifeguards, and are cutting hours as a result. In a rebounding economy, teens are opting for higher-paying jobs or no job at all.
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The meat industry traditionally has been a male-dominated field. But as demand for local meat grows, that's made more room for women to carve out ownership roles in the business.
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The Fisk Jubilee Singers are known for their near-perfect voices and performances of African-American spiritual songs. Now the choir's musical director is on the road, mentoring to young groups across the South. He's also hoping to preserve the songs too.
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The Chinese computer maker is trying to boost its brand and U.S. market share as other high-tech firms, including Motorola, plan to manufacture here. North Carolina officials say the plant in Whitsett is a sign of manufacturing's return from overseas.
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A theater served children in devastated New Orleans this summer, after many of the city's programs for youth were washed away with last year's floods.