Stella M. Chávez is an award-winning, Texas-based independent journalist focused on telling deeply reported and intimate stories about diverse populations, including immigrants and refugees. As the daughter of a Mexican immigrant father and a Mexican American mother, Stella believes strongly in accurately reporting on these communities and correcting misperceptions about them. During her two-and-a-half-decade career, she also covered local government, education and national stories like the mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart and the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Stella has reported for daily newspapers in Florida and Texas and public radio. Her work has been featured on NPR, BBC and CNN. Stella is a member of the Poynter Institute National Advisory Board and a regional judge for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.