The Star hires Hurubie Meko to join team reporting on gun violence in Missouri

The Kansas City Star, in partnership with the national service program Report for America, has hired Hurubie Meko to join a team of reporters covering gun violence in Missouri.

Meko previously worked as a data and visualizations reporter at the LNP | LancasterOnline newspaper in Pennsylvania. There she covered the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes and struggling renters. Previously, she investigated water quality issues, wrote about criminal justice issues and covered city government and schools.

“I am thrilled to join a team that is already producing important work,” Meko said. “I am also humbled by the opportunity to work on a project with a focus on in-depth reporting — by keeping nuance and human experiences at the forefront of each story, the project’s reporting is already shedding light on the causes and impact of gun violence in the state.”

Meko, a graduate of American University, has also worked in refugee resettlement with the Church World Service in Lancaster, and as a research intern for Amnesty International in Washington, D.C. She grew up in Lancaster.

She joins a team of reporters, also hired in partnership with Report for America, who are dedicated to a two-year, statewide journalism project focused on the root causes and solutions to gun violence in Missouri. The team includes Kaitlin Washburn, who is focusing on firearm suicide, and Humera Lodhi, the team’s lead reporter on a series examining public health perspectives on gun violence.

The group, paid with the help of a grant awarded through the RFA program, launched the project last June. The coverage has examined lack of trust in police as a driver of gun violence in Kansas City, the role of domestic abuse in gun violence in Springfield, and solutions that have worked to prevent teen firearm suicide in St. Louis, among other topics.

The project is supported in part by the nonprofit Missouri Foundation for Health.

“We’re delighted to have Hurubie join our team,” said Greg Farmer, The Star’s managing editor. “Her passion for doing impactful journalism will help Humera and Kaitlin push the Missouri Gun Violence Project forward. We can’t wait to see the great work they will do together.“

This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 2:38 PM.