Kimbriell Kelly

Kimbriell Kelly is an award-winning investigative journalist who most recently served as assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief at the Los Angeles Times.

Kelly joined The Times in Washington in 2019 as deputy editor for enterprise and investigations. Kelly edited the immigration coverage that led to the bureau’s first Pulitzer Prize in 17 years.

Kelly’s competitive streak and her passion for scoops and memorable stories are reflected in numerous stories that she has championed, including coverage of an investigation into whether Stephen K. Bannon had lied to lawmakers; that showed why the failure to release $20 million in Pentagon aid to Ukraine was at the center of the impeachment inquiry; and that made public the FBI’s service of a search warrant on prominent Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr seeking information about controversial stock trades, prompting Burr to announce a day later that he would step down as chair of the Intelligence Committee.

Prior to joining The Times, Kelly was an investigative reporter at the Washington Post, where she started in 2012, after working in and around Chicago for almost 15 years at the Daily Herald and the Chicago Reporter, where her investigation into Countrywide Financials subprime mortgage lending led to the nation’s largest fair-lending settlement. While at the Post, she worked on “Fatal Force,” a team effort investigating officer-involved shootings that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2016. Three years later, she was a Pulitzer finalist for a yearlong examination of murder in America’s 55 largest cities.

She is a sought-after expert on public-records requests, research, and data analysis, and previously worked for The Chicago Reporter and The Daily Herald. During the past two years, Kelly was the Ferris Professor of Journalism while a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and taught at Berkeley and American Universities as an adjunct professor of journalism.