Keri Mitchell has spent 20+ years as a community journalist, including 15 years dedicated to community and civic journalism at Dallas’ Advocate magazines. She launched Dallas Free Press in early 2020 with the belief that all neighborhoods deserve reporting and storytelling that values their community and holds leaders accountable.
Mitchell says she is energized by “knowing our work is making an impact — listening to people, telling their stories with strong narratives paired with compelling data that leads to change. I also love spending time in our neighborhoods and with our neighbors, learning from them and working to determine how journalism can be part of the solution to their challenges.”
Mitchell is proud to be the winner of multiple awards during her journalism career including: Finalist in Magazine Feature Reporting (2018) and Finalist in Magazine Investigative Reporting (2017) from Hugh Aynesworth Excellence in Journalism, Best Feature Story (2011) from Texas Community Newspaper Association and Best Magazine Feature (2011) from Dallas Bar Association Philbin Awards.
Location:
Dallas, Texas
Languages Spoken:
English
Areas of Expertise:
local government, education, civic issues, investigative and enterprise reporting
Location Expertise:
Dallas, Texas
Official Title:
Founder + executive director
Email Address:
keri@dallasfreepress.com
Twitter Profile:
thequotablelife
Linkedin Profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/keri-mitchell/
The award is named for the late West Dallas leader who fought tirelessly for housing rights on behalf of his neighbors.
Good afternoon! Here’s what the Dallas Free Press team is […]
Good morning! Here’s what the Dallas Free Press team is […]
Posters and playbills featuring Broadway musicals line the walls of […]
Good afternoon! Here’s what the Dallas Free Press team is […]
Good afternoon! Here’s what the Dallas Free Press team is […]
Good morning! Here’s what the Dallas Free Press team is […]
This new “Neighborhood Connect Telehealth Initiative” — a partnership between Aetna CVS Health and the South Dallas Fair Park Faith Coalition, which Salem pastor Todd Atkins chairs — is intended to bring health care directly to South Dallas residents, bypassing barriers such as internet access, transportation, and the historical mistrust of Black Americans in medical care.
West Dallas' only school of choice might be renamed after Oak Cliff legacy names without the community's input.
Dallas ISD School Board President Justin Henry announced this week he will not seek reelection as the District 9 trustee, and a four-way race to replace him is underway.
The West Dallas Junior High School will fulfill the community's wishes to reclaim its history but will DISD considering all of their input.
West Dallas residents and leaders want the Trinity Park Conservancy to take action to ensure the park will benefit neighbors.
This excerpt from Ernest McMillan’s book, “Standing: One Man’s Odyssey through the Turbulent ’60s" is a glimpse into the work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, in South Dallas.
The case of City of Dallas v. Vanesko, heard by the Texas Supreme Court nearly 20 years ago, parallels a current situation in West Dallas' La Bajada neighborhood.
A Dallas Morning News story by real estate editor Steve Brown notes that the purchase by Nebraska-based investor Goldenrod Cos. is "one of the largest such property transactions in years located so close to downtown" and "signals future development."
Dallas Free Press is seeking a journalist or writer/researcher with a passion for local government, policy and power in Dallas to support our team as our Civic Producer.
Dallas Free Press is seeking a Program Manager to lead our local arm of the award-winning Documenters program, which trains and pays residents to produce information in the public interest.
In early 2023. Dallas Free Press will be the 10th newsroom in America to host the Documenters Network, which recruits, trains and, most importantly, pays residents for their time spent attending meetings, taking notes to contribute to the public record, and sharing back to their communities.
Dallas Free Press is looking for a journalism pathway coordinator to work with students in South Dallas and West Dallas on writing, storytelling, civic engagement, media literacy and critical thinking skills that would benefit them no matter what career they choose.
The land value of dozens of 7,000-square-foot parcels in Los Altos — just north of Singleton, up and down Borger, Crossman and Winnetka — all jumped from $65,000 to $168,000 this year. Several efforts are being made to educate West Dallas neighbors on how to protest property tax appraisals before the May 16 deadline.
A bombshell dropped on South Dallas this week when Froswa’ Booker-Drew announced that her last day at the State Fair of Texas would be next Friday, April 15.
The Hon. Diane Ragsdale, who will turn 70 this year, has spent her entire life in South Dallas. Her story has been shaped by the neighborhood and, likewise, she has shaped her neighborhood in significant ways. She’s still fighting some of the same issues that led her to run for Council, and as a registered nurse, she approaches the systems as she would her patients — a belief in preventative medicine that will treat the underlying causes, not just the symptoms.
For more than two years, West Dallas Investments has been trying to win favor from La Bajada neighbors, its board, the West Dallas community, and the City Plan Commission. They've run into opposition from almost every direction, but despite this, the developers have appealed their case to City Council, where it is on the agenda this Wednesday, Dec. 8.
Dallas Free Press is seeking an adept communicator who is highly organized to build strong relationships with potential major donors, funders and corporate sponsors.
John Spriggins, manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center, launched the Juanita J. Craft House Artist in Residency to provide artists with studio space to create work that “capture[s] the immediacy of the moment where historical neighborhoods are rapidly changing due to socio-economic shifts."
Dallas Free Press is looking for a full-time journalist to […]
Dallas Free Press has launched a journalism pathway from Dallas high schools to Dallas newsrooms, starting with efforts to educate high school students. We are looking for a part-time journalism pathway coordinator to work with students in South Dallas and West Dallas.
The Dallas Media Collaborative is searching for a part-time Project Manager to coordinate and lead its efforts toward a connected, city-wide solutions journalism network.
A neighborhood-led plan "will be used to shape the future of West Dallas for the next 10 to 20 years,” and act to "slow down the fast-paced gentrification that is running a risk of literally changing the thread of our community and wiping away the history," says James Armstrong III.
Now that anyone who wants a vaccine can get one, the challenge is overcoming barriers such as internet access needed to register for the vaccine and transportation needed to get to appointments, plus the even more daunting barrier of trust.
Two in five Dallas ISD seniors are in danger of not graduating, so alumni rolled out the red carpet when Pinkston seniors returned Monday.
Dallas Free Press has compiled a list of resources for South Dallas residents in the aftermath of the winter storm.
Dallas Free Press has compiled a list of resources for West Dallas residents in the aftermath of February's winter storm.
For many families in South Dallas, COVID has forced them to choose between sending their kids to school and facing financial and health risks, or keeping them home and dealing with isolation and learning loss.
Dallas ISD high school, middle school, and elementary students have missed days of school. Authorities presented a plan to address this.
“I’ve never seen the marquee light up before,” noted Elizabeth […]
For more than a year, Trinity Groves developers West Dallas […]
This Dallas Free Press survey will inform our community journalism efforts in South Dallas and West Dallas, and help our launching-soon local media collaborative determine its focus topic.
On Thursday, the City Plan Commission will consider West Dallas Investments’ request to allow a 400-foot tower on the north side of Singleton, adjacent to La Bajada, with the hope of attracting a Fortune 500 company like Amazon, Google, AT&T or Toyota.
The $2 million set aside solely for seven census tracts in the 75212 zip code comes from funds City Manager T.C. Broadnax pulled together from former city bond packages.
This WFAA airs from reporter David Schechter reveals how banks are still redlining southern Dallas neighborhoods.
The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Free Press, in partnership with the national Solutions Journalism Network, are looking for a reporter to spend the next five months reporting on "food apartheid" in Dallas.
The Nov. 3 presidential election is attracting record numbers of early voters in Dallas to the polls, but there are local decisions to be made, too, including five Dallas ISD bond propositions totaling $3.7 billion.
Co-published with our media partner, Advocate magazines On Sept. 1, […]
When South Dallas residents don’t hold the title to the […]
Co-published by our media partner, the Dallas Weekly Two years […]
Dallas ISD’s 41-page Reentry Playbook for Parents is thorough, but […]
Co-published by our media partner, The Dallas Weekly When Dr. […]
Co-published by our media partner, The Dallas Weekly Mayor Eric […]
Co-published by our media partner, The Dallas Weekly In the […]
During a typical month, Dennis Gant may welcome one or two new residents to the former South Dallas apartment building that now operates as a dormitory for men who just left prison and are trying to get on their feet.
In the last three weeks, however, six new residents have been released to the care of Trinity Restoration Ministries.
Dallas County had declared a state of emergency two weeks prior as cases of the novel coronavirus rose. Williams reached out to Carter, whose nonprofit Carter’s House provides children’s clothing and baby items to families from its headquarters at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center. The two women had teamed up previously to host pop-up baby boutiques for single parents, and they decided to face the pandemic head-on in another joint effort.
The coronavirus pandemic already is taking its toll on Dallas. And COVID-19 is likely to more fiercely attack disenfranchised sections of the city.
