I’m the lead producer for All Things Considered on MPR News. That means I keep an eye on what’s coming out of our newsroom and NPR’s, and work to fill in the blanks — whether that’s getting someone on the show who can tell us what the latest national news means for Minnesota, highlighting a story or voice that’s been missing in our coverage, or squeezing a little levity and curiosity into the onslaught of news. 

Before joining MPR News, I covered education, community health and immigration as a reporter at KPBS in San Diego. I also helped KPBS, Voice of San Diego, The AjA Project and Media Arts Center San Diego launch and manage Speak City Heights, a media collaborative and youth journalism program covering San Diego's immigrant and refugee communities.

My reporting in San Diego pushed police to collect racial profiling data, yielded new resources for low-income tenants living in dangerous housing conditions, reversed a magnet school policy that disenfranchised students of color, and fast-tracked street improvements at the site of a fatal hit and run.

What should I look into now? Email mburks@mpr.org or tweet @MEBurks.