Melissa Segura
Melissa Segura (Investigative Reporter, BuzzFeed News, US) is an investigative reporter with BuzzFeed News and an Emerson fellow at the think tank New America. Her reporting focuses on the intersection of justice, class and race. In 2017 she authored a landmark investigation detailing how a group of predominantly working class, Latina women from Chicago uncovered evidence suggesting a police detective framed at least 51 of their sons, brothers, or husbands.
Her series, “Broken Justice in Chicago,” has led to the exoneration of 10 men who had each spent decades behind bars. In 2018, the series earned her the George Polk Award in Journalism for local reporting and recognition as a finalist for Harvard’s Goldsmith Award. She is at work on a book building on her Chicago story that examines the cracks in the criminal justice system and the hidden role that women play in correcting injustices. Before BuzzFeed News, Segura was a staff writer for Sports Illustrated. She received her B.A. in Spanish studies and communication from Santa Clara University.