Byrhonda Lyons

Byrhonda Lyons is a national award-winning investigative reporter for CalMatters. She writes and produces compelling stories about California’s court and criminal system. Her reporting has uncovered how California bounces around mentally ill prisoners, the lack of diversity among local judges, and how state police ignored a Ninth Circuit opinion and continued an asset forfeiture procedure towing people’s vehicle for 30-day tows.

Byrhonda’s work aims to hold politicians accountable and educate Californians about the ins and outs of their state government. Her work has appeared on the PBS NewsHour and in local newspapers throughout California. She won a National Headliner Award for her work during the 2018 elections. She has also received multiple awards from the California News Publishers Association (CNPA) and was a finalist for an Online News Publishers Award.

Before joining CalMatters, Byrhonda was a freelance video producer and worked as a digital media specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. She was also an editor for the San Quentin News, a prisoner-run newspaper in California.

Byrhonda is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and Arkansas’ oldest historically Black college, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. When she is not working, you can catch her at an art gallery and searching archives for trailblazing women who have been left out of history books.