Stella Chavez, Immigration Reporter for KERA / NPR Dallas

Stella M. Chávez covers immigration for KERA, the NPR member station in Dallas. In 2019, she broke a national story about a large-scale immigration raid on a technology repair company in Allen, Texas. She also contributed to coverage of the Uvalde school shooting and the mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart. She’s written and produced several multi-part projects, including Generation One about immigrant students in North Texas and The Race to Save Failing Schools about schools trying to meet state academic standards.

Prior to joining public radio, Stella spent nearly 13 years as a daily newspaper reporter for The Dallas Morning News, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida.

She’s received several national and state accolades, including a 2021 Investigative Reporters & Editors award for the collaborative series “Hot Days: Heat’s Mounting Death Toll on Workers in the US” and the 2007 Livingston Award for Young Journalists in National Reporting for “Yolanda’s Crossing,” a seven-part series that reconstructs the 5,000-mile journey of a young sexual-abuse victim from a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico to Dallas.

In her spare time, Stella enjoys traveling, hiking and writing about her experience as a longtime caregiver for her parents.

Page last updated 4:38 PM, September 8, 2023