WSJ hires Najmabadi to cover central US

The Wall Street Journal has hired Shannon Najmabadi to cover the central United States.

She has been a reporter for the Colorado Sun covering the rural economy.

Najmabadi was a reporter at the Texas Tribune from 2017 to 2021, most recently covering women’s health. Her stories — on higher education and other topics — have prompted lawmakers to change three state laws, including one involving a very narrow definition of the word “pickle.”

She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.