Mary Beech: Reporter

I’m a multimedia investigative journalist covering housing and homelessness, public health, and social services for Shasta Scout. I’m passionate about showing the human impact of policy decisions — the way public policy affects the lived experience of city and county residents on the ground.

I graduated with a master’s from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York City in May 2026, where I specialized in audio journalism and local accountability reporting. Outside of graduate school, I’ve worked at local newsrooms in the Boston suburbs, at a Boston-area NPR station, and for a nonprofit newsroom in Jacksonville, Florida.

I was drawn to Shasta Scout and the work in Shasta County because I believe strongly in journalism as a public good, and in serving communities from which traditional corporate media has disinvested. I am deeply passionate about government transparency and the freedom of information, and I’m honored to serve the people of Shasta county as I strive to provide fair, accurate, and objective reporting about their, and now my, home.