Dusty Christensen

M.A., New York University

Dusty Christensen is an independent investigative reporter who has written about everything from police misconduct to changing diapers. As an international correspondent, he has covered topics including Ukraine’s nuclear industry and U.S. retirees gentrifying indigenous villages in Ecuador, reporting for outlets including The Nation magazine, NPR, Haaretz and PBS. As a local reporter in western Massachusetts, his work has appeared in newspapers including the Daily Hampshire Gazette — where he was a staff writer for five years — The Boston Globe, The Berkshire Eagle, the Greenfield Recorder and the Valley Advocate. While at the Gazette, the New England Newspaper & Press Association named Dusty a finalist for best investigative reporting for his exposé on past abuses at the world-famous Clarke School for the Deaf and a finalist for best education reporting for a series chronicling a financial crisis at Hampshire College.

Dusty was one of the founding organizers of the labor union at the Gazette, where he helped organize a campaign to win the first-ever union contract at the newspaper. Dusty has worked since as a member organizer with the NewsGuild, helping other journalists across the country unionize their newsrooms. Dusty served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine from 2012 to 2014.

Dusty is on Twitter @dustyc123.