Don’t Forget My Voice

A newsletter about newsrooms' cultural complexities and the journalism industry inability to embrace diversity.

By Mc Nelly Torres

Journalists know doing this job is not easy. Layoffs, toxic newsrooms, abusive bosses, no appreciation, doing more work with fewer resources and no increase in pay, always fighting to stay employed. Take it from me: I have experienced it all and I’m still standing after decades in the business. Now, I want to help you get through journalism's chaotic maze by sharing my methods of survival and what I learned over the years.

My professional biography:

I grew up in tough newspaper newsrooms at a time when working long, grueling hours was expected, and your value was measured by the size of your Rolodex. That journey began in northeast Texas at a small newspaper called the Herald Democrat located in Sherman. I was the only Latina and as far as I remember the only person of color in the newsroom.

I moved around the country following a military husband and this gave me the opportunity to meet different people and explore new communities. In the years following, I worked at daily newspapers in Oklahoma (The Lawton Constitution), South Carolina (Morning News), Texas (San Antonio Express-News) and Florida (Sun-Sentinel).

Most recently, I led a team producing data-driven investigations with a focus on inequality at the Center for Public Integrity, based in Washington, D.C. Before CPI, I was an investigative producer for NBC6-WTVJ in Miami and a news entrepreneur as a co-founder of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, FCIR.org.

Mc Nelly Torres training journalists in Mexico City (top left), Emmy Awards in 2015, picture cover on CJR magazine, NAHJ Hall of Fame in 2018, FCIR co-founder and IRE managers training.

I became the first Latina to be elected to the boards of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the Florida Society of News Editors. I’m now serving on the board of the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.

Investigative journalism has always been at the center of everything I’ve done. I have shared my skills and knowledge with others through training and mentoring for decades here in the U.S. and abroad.

In 2023, I wrote a personal essay as part of a project I led, edited, managed and published by Poynter where I talk about those who influenced me growing up and why I became a journalist.

Mc Nelly Torres as the recipient of the 2022 Gwen Ifill Award (top left), recording an audio piece in Spanish in her closet, on assignment in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria with photographer Angel Valentin, as Sun-Sentinel staff at the NAHJ convention in 2006 and last picture in Humacao after Hurricane Maria.

I’ve earned over two dozen awards. I was part of the team that produced 40 Acres and a Lie, a groundbreaking investigation about the government’s failed promise of land to formerly enslaved people that was a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist for explanatory reporting.

This project was published in 2024 as part of a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity, Reveal and later on Mother Jones. It also received a 2025 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, Philip Meyer Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards, Global Investigative Journalism Network Sigma Award and a national Edward R. Murrow award.

Other awards I garnered over the years included an Emmy for my work at NBC, national and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for my work as a reporter and editor, and several awards from organizations such as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Education Writers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2022, I was honored to be a recipient of the Gwen Ifill Award.

I’m a mother of two adult children, a wife, and a mom to a 12-year-old American Bulldog, Lulu. When I’m not doing journalism things, I travel, practice yoga and dance salsa with my hubby. I love to visit my hometown of Arroyo in Puerto Rico, where I have a large community and family always happy to see me.

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