Young reporter receives Livingston Award for documenting the tribulations of Appalachia

Claire Galofaro, left, accepted the award from
Maria Elena Salinas of Univision. (AP photo)

Claire Galofaro, a Louisville-based reporter for The Associated Press, received the Livingston Award for Local Reporting from the University of Michigan Tuesday, "in recognition of her outstanding work documenting economic despair in Appalachia," reports Lauren Easton of AP.

"The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists honor the best reporting and storytelling in any medium by journalists under the age of 35," Easton notes. Galofaro was awarded a $10,000 prize at a luncheon in New York for her series "Surviving Appalachia."

"Her stories examined the rise of Donald Trump, described the effects of the heroin epidemic on a small West Virginia city and detailed the plight of hundreds of families entangled in a disability fraud scheme," Easton writes.

Galofaro said, "The lesson I learned most vividly from reporting these stories is that a generally-improving American economy means nothing to people who look out their window and see only devastation and decay. There is a consequence of forsaking these blue-collar places."

Galofaro is one of three Livingston Award winners. "Brooke Jarvis of The California Sunday Magazine received top honors for national reporting, and Ben Taub of The New Yorker won for international reporting. The late Gwen Ifill was honored with the Richard M. Clurman Award for on-the-job mentoring," Easton reports. Find more information about the winners here. Read the full AP story here.