StateImpact reporters reflect on eventful 2020

How will the events of last year continue to shape 2021?

• Logan Layden
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.
• Quinton Chandler
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Quinton is an Oklahoma native who started his radio career with KOSU Public Radio in 2011. He’s a graduate of Oklahoma State University. Before joining StateImpact, Quinton spent three years reporting in South Central and Southeast Alaska. Quinton loves writing, reading and has an intense relationship with his Netflix account.
• Catherine Sweeney
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Catherine covers health for StateImpact Oklahoma. She grew up in Muskogee and went to Oklahoma State University. She has covered politics and policy in Colorado's high plains, Oklahoma City and Washington, D.C. You can reach her at catherine@stateimpactoklahoma.org, @cathjsweeney on Twitter or 405-673-5226 on Signal.
• Robby Korth
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Robby Korth covers education for StateImpact Oklahoma. He grew up in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Fayetteville, Arkansas and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Before working at StateImpact, he covered higher education for The Roanoke Times newspaper in Virginia.

Quinton Chandler / StateImpact Oklahoma

Mega Wat said she joined a protest in June because Black Lives Matter.

The coronavirus. Black Lives Matter activism. A presidential election.

The events of 2020 will continue to ripple into 2021. 

Last year, the reporters of StateImpact Oklahoma had to adapt to constantly changing situations and remained focused on telling stories that matter at the intersection of people and policy. 

The year began with nary a thought of COVID-19. The virus hadn’t been detected in Oklahoma and seemed a world away to policymakers and the people of the state.

Quinton Chandler / StateImpact Oklahoma

Prisoners at Oklahoma’s largest prison for women attend a ceremony celebrating a dog training program designed to teach them skills for life outside prison.

At the beginning of 2020 Oklahoma was trying to help hundreds of prisoners released in the nation’s largest commutation. 

Further in criminal justice, covered by StateImpact’s Quinton Chandler, the state was still grappling with a high prison population, limited resources for prisons and how to make new rules for lethal injections.

In education, a number of persistent issues continued. StateImpact’s Robby Korth covered things like the state’s lagging higher education funding, to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s fight with the tribes over gaming money to guns in Oklahoma schools. 

But all these issues faded into the background on March 11.

Robby Korth / StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister address the media during a press conference March 12 about COVID-19 and the potential for school closures.

As the Utah Jazz prepped to tip off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Chesapeake Energy Arena. There was a sudden delay.

Shortly after that NBA game was delayed, StateImpact sprang into action producing numerous stories on the coronavirus and how Oklahomans were responding.

In the spring and summer, StateImpact added new managing editor Logan Layden and health reporter Catherine Sweeney. 

Jackie Fortier / StateImpact

As the pandemic raged at the end of 2020, it became more and more difficult to find a hospital bed in Oklahoma.

Since starting, Sweeney has reported on the difficulty to find a hospital bed in Oklahoma City during the pandemic, inconsistent public health messaging and how Oklahoma has begun distributing COVID-19 vaccines.

Although the coronavirus has only taken a stronger hold in Oklahoma, the end of 2020 brought a light at the end of the tunnel: a vaccine. State officials administered Oklahoma’s first coronavirus shot on December 14. 

What 2021 has in store isn’t written yet. All we do know is that StateImpact will be here to tell you those stories as they unfold.