Vanessa Swales, Author at Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center

Vanessa Swales

Vanessa Swales joined the Center as an investigative reporter in 2020. Swales is a multilingual British-American-Iranian reporter who has worked in London, New York, San Francisco and Málaga, Spain. She most recently completed a reporting fellowship at the New York Times. Swales is a graduate of the Spanish-language journalism program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she specialized in investigative and data journalism. She previously worked for NBC Investigations, Reveal, Diario SUR and SUR in English. She speaks fluent Spanish, and intermediate French, and basic Italian and Farsi.

Cruel and Unusual?

‘He shouldn’t have had to die’: COVID-19 infects half of Wisconsin inmates, five times the overall state rate

By Vanessa Swales (Wisconsin Watch) | February 13, 2021

Prisoners lack space and some say rules to curb COVID-19 are unevenly enforced

Narrow Margin

Partisan gridlock at Wisconsin Elections Commission frustrates voters, local officials

By Vanessa Swales (Wisconsin Watch) | October 26, 2020

The commission that oversees voting in the swing state has deadlocked along party lines on key issues, resulting in inconsistency, turmoil and delays.

Justice & Safety

Before Jacob Blake, Kenosha had a history of police shootings

By Vanessa Swales (Wisconsin Watch) | August 28, 2020

One shooting in 2004 led to statewide reform, requiring outside reviews of shootings by law enforcement in Wisconsin

Justice & Safety

‘I just killed somebody’: Vigilantes inject danger into police brutality protests in Kenosha, nationwide

By Jim Malewitz (Wisconsin Watch) and Vanessa Swales (Wisconsin Watch) | August 28, 2020

A 17-year-old answering a call to arms to protect property faces murder charges after allegedly shooting two men to death during a protest over a police shooting