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Denise Smith Amos is the California Voices Deputy Editor. She has edited several impactful special reports, including CalMatters’ award-winning multimedia series about California’s wage theft problems.
Before joining CalMatters, Denise led an award-winning team of watchdog and accountability reporters at the San Diego Union-Tribune, including a data and investigative team, education and government journalists, public safety reporters and local columnists. She edited projects about record high jail death rates, a Congressmember’s theft of campaign funds, and charter schools that defrauded California taxpayers out of millions.
In prior years she has edited or written news stories and columns at newspapers in Orlando, Tampa Bay, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Jacksonville, Florida. She has covered local and state government, K-12 education, business, crime and social justice issues. Her award winning reporting on teachers cheating on standardized tests helped Gannett garner national and state accolades.
Denise is a Philadelphia native whose passion is telling true stories about people in and out of poverty. Coming from a large, low income family of first-generation college graduates, Denise graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
