Rachel Dissell
is an independent journalist and part of the Cleveland Documenters
team. She just concluded a Stanford University John S. Knight Community
Impact Fellowship. She reported for The Plain Dealer
for 18 years. “Reinvestigating Rape,” a series with reporter Leila
Atassi, led to the testing of 14,000 Ohio rape kits and indictments in
nearly 800 cold cases. “Case Closed,” a series with Andrea Simakis,
explored the systemic failures of Cleveland police through the
experience of a grandmother who had to solve her own rape. The story won
the 2020 Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma. Recently,
Dissell has worked to build community-rooted collaborations with more
than a dozen websites, newspapers and radio stations. She worked on The
Witness Project, which explored crime witness cooperation and is member
of the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Network.
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