T-Squared: Corrie MacLaggan Joining Trib Staff

We told you back in May that we'd received a generous grant from the Ford Foundation to expand our coverage of how fast-shifting demographics are impacting Texas. Per the terms of the grant, we announced plans to open a bureau on the border and to hire a reporter on the demography beat.

With the Trib's Julián Aguilar firmly established in El Paso — as of this week — in our just-opened bureau there, the time has come to bring aboard our new demographics reporter. And we've hired a doozy! We are so happy to announce that we've stolen away one of our favorite colleagues from the Austin press corps: former Austin American-Statesman Capitol reporter and current Reuters national correspondent Corrie MacLaggan. 

Corrie's a true Texan: born in Austin, got her first skinned knee at Enchanted Rock, caught her first fish in Rockport, took her first journalism job in El Paso. For the last two years, she has written and edited stories about Texas and nearby states for Reuters while overseeing a network of freelance writers. Before that, she covered Texas government and politics for the Statesman, writing about everything from gubernatorial races to food stamp application backlogs. (She was my fiercest competition on the health and human services beat!)

Corrie's also a fluent Spanish speaker; when she first joined the Statesman in 2004, she spent a year writing for the newspaper's weekly Spanish-language publication. Previously, she spent a year freelancing in Mexico City, where she wrote and edited for publications including the Miami Herald's Mexico edition, Latin Trade magazine and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. She began her career as a reporter covering K-12 education for the El Paso Times. 

Corrie graduated with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and Spanish, but she'll have you know she brought a Texas flag with her to North Carolina. (Not that we were worried.)

Corrie's first day with us is Aug. 12, and you can find her on Twitter at @corriemac. Please help us welcome her to the Trib's fast-growing ranks!