Foster-Frau joins investigative team at Washington Post

Washington Post national editor Phil Rucker, deputy national editor Amy Fiscus and senior national investigations editor Rosalind Helderman sent out the following:

We are delighted to announce that Silvia Foster-Frau last year took on a new assignment on National’s investigations team, applying her considerable reporting skills in pursuit of high-impact accountability stories from across the country. As part of her investigative mission, Silvia will continue exploring how local, state and federal governments serve this country’s diversifying population and the effects of America’s changing racial, ethnic and cultural demographics.

As a standout reporter on the America desk covering multiculturalism, Silvia excelled at telling complex stories that require rigorous reporting and sharp accountability instincts. She worked closely last year with the investigations and enterprise teams on “American Icon,” The Post’s groundbreaking series examining the AR-15’s role in society. She and Holly Bailey wrote a moving piece from Sutherland Springs, Tex., about the lifelong disability and trauma left behind five years after a mass shooting, and she helped anchor “Terror on Repeat,” The Post’s revealing look at the devastation from AR-15 shootings.

Silvia has demonstrated her instincts for resonant stories in her coverage of several mass shootings, including a penetrating and empathetic run of coverage on the Uvalde, Tex., massacre, as well as the 2022 midterm elections, writing about Latino voters. In addition, she wrote a powerful story about a Mexican American family’s differing experiences and views on abortion after news of the Dobbs decision was first reported.

Silvia won the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Elaine Rivera Civil Rights and Social Justice Award in 2022 for her work on the largely untold crisis of police violence against Latinos.

Silvia joined The Post in February 2021 from the San Antonio Express-News, where she covered immigration. She won a Texas APME Star Reporter of the Year award in 2019 for her coverage of immigration and of the Sutherland Springs shooting.

Silvia is from Galesburg, Ill., a place she often describes as “not near Chicago,” where she was a high school columnist for the local paper and held her first job as a bakery cashier and baker. She lived in northern Mexico for a year after high school as part of an exchange program and graduated from Grinnell College with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Silvia serves as vice president of the NAHJ’s D.C. chapter. She lives in Washington with a former street dog named Tony, whom she enjoys taking on walks at Meridian Hill Park except when he decides to roll on something mysterious but definitely icky.