Biography

Alejandra Martinez is an environmental reporter for The Texas Tribune. She’s covered how sewage-based fertilizer tainted with “forever chemicals” or PFAS has poisoned the land of several farmers in Texas. A focus of hers this year has been exploring how Texas faces numerous threats to its water supply and how water leaders and lawmakers hope to help manage the state’s water crisis. She’s covered the impacts of the petrochemical facilities on Black and brown communities, including investigating a chemical fire at an industrial complex and how the state’s air monitoring system has failed Latino communities. Her work on climate change includes exploring the health effects of extreme heat and how extended droughts affect water resources. Before joining the Tribune in 2022, Alejandra was an accountability reporter at KERA, where she began as a Report for America Corps Member and then covered Dallas City Hall. She also has worked as an associate producer at WLRN in South Florida. A Houston native, Alejandra studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and speaks fluent Spanish.