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Wendy Fry

California Divide Reporter

Wendy Fry is an Emmy-winning multimedia investigative journalist who reports on poverty and inequality for the California Divide team. Based in San Diego and Mexico, Wendy has been covering the California border region for more than 15 years and covers immigration, reparations and issues affecting San Diego-area families

She’s a board member of the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and has reported for the Watchdog team at the San Diego Union-Tribune from 2009 to 2012. 

For television, she worked as an on-air reporter, investigative producer and assignment editor at NBC San Diego from 2013 to 2018 — where she helped launch an investigative team and Telemundo20, the Spanish language news station — before returning to print journalism, covering Mexico and Baja California for the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2022.

Wendy won SPJ’s Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism in 2012 for uncovering corruption among construction contractors and elected officials at the Sweetwater Union High School District, resulting in indictments of about a dozen public officials. 

She also won the Grand Golden Watchdog Award from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association in 2017, for her coverage of dangerous levels of lead in water in the San Diego Unified and San Ysidro school districts. Her short documentary “Missing in Mexico,” about family members searching for the remains of missing loved ones, won a regional Emmy. 

A graduate of San Diego State, Wendy speaks English and Spanish.

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Assemblymember Mia Bonta sits on a yellow chair during a presentation titled "Reparations: A Movement for All Californians." The large projected text dominates the background, conveying the event's focus on reparations. Two other yellow chairs and tables with water bottles are visible, indicating a panel discussion or a speaker series, though the other seats remain empty.
A child, on the left side of the frame, places a toy fishing hook in to a small water well with other toys floating around, as his mother and father play next to him.
Migrants arrive to St. Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles on two buses traveling from Texas on Sept. 19, 2023. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters
A worker in a bright orange and yellow safety vest is helped by another worker in placing a tent into the back of a trash hauler at Cesar Chavez Park in San Diego.
A view of the the front door of a building that's covered in a tarp and construction materials.
Cellphones charging on a white table with a power outlet as migrants receive help from local volunteers at the Casa Familiar Civic Center in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on Sept. 25, 2023. Photo by Carlos Moreno/Sipa USA via Reuters
A young boy hangs clothes to dry on a clothesline in front of a bright, light blue wall.