Desert Sun biz reporter Daniels leaves for nonprofit

Melissa Daniels

Melissa Daniels, a business reporter for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California, is leaving to join a non profit.

Daniels is becoming communications manager for Life to Rise, a Coachella Valley nonprofit that’s working on housing and economic opportunity efforts to ensure all residents are healthy, stable and thriving.

Daniels will coordinate with community-based organizations and partners to ensure continuity in Lift to Rise’s work and mission throughout the entire Coachella Valley region.

“Constant updates are crucial in making our efforts a success,” said Lift to Rise CEO Heather Vaikona in a statement. “We are grateful to welcome Melissa to the Lift to Rise team, whose experience and passions meet our vision and goals.”

Daniels has been with the paper since August 2019. Since March 2020, she covered the economic fallout of the COVID pandemic.

She previously worked at Report for America and spent two years at Law36o in its Los Angeles bureau.

Daniels also covered transportation and state government for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

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.