Dusty Christensen

Dusty Christensen is an investigative reporter and editor whose work has appeared in outlets including The Nation, NPR, The Boston Globe, Haaretz, WNYC radio, The Appeal, and In These Times. Locally, he has worked as the investigations editor for The Shoestring, as a reporter and editor for New England Public Media, and as a staff writer for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. In 2018, he was one of the organizers of a successful campaign to unionize the Gazette and later worked as a member organizer with the NewsGuild helping other journalists unionize their newsrooms nationwide.

Dusty has won regional and national awards for his investigative reporting and editing, including a Publick Occurrences Award — the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s top yearly prize — for a 2024 series scrutinizing how easy it is for Massachusetts police to seize, and often keep, people’s property. His exposés on past abuses at the Clarke School for the Deaf and on corporate research agreements at Massachusetts’ flagship public university were NENPA finalists for best investigative reporting. He received a digital-writing award from the Public Media Journalists Association for his 2023 investigation of civilian complaints against the Holyoke Police Department.

Dusty has also taught journalism at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine from 2012 to 2014, and has received fellowships from the New England First Amendment Coalition and Investigative Reporters and Editors.