Biography

Cami Ferrell is a bilingual multimedia reporter for Environmental Health News. She creates digital-first stories through articles, video and social media content. Primary, her coverage focuses on the build out of the oil and gas industry along the Gulf Coast as part of the bilingual Texas bureau. She pioneered the creation of this bureau from the ground-up in the summer of 2023 for EHN. Based in Houston, Texas, she has reported on a variety of topics including: violations of environmental standards, scientific analysis, studies, emissions, greenhouse gas pollution, language justice, climate change and more. Her reporting has been used by community advocates in conversations with policymakers and as educational material in a Houston middle school. Ferrell aims to continue to explore intersections of health and environmental risks present in the petrochemical capital of the world.

Before her employment at EHN, she worked as a high school English educator in Houston’s East End and helped bridge gaps in education after the pandemic. Her students, while they achieved growth in state exam performance, English language proficiency and more, continued to voice concerns related to the environment. In the heart of the East End, her students’ soccer fields bordered a chemical complex and the Houston Ship Channel sat just across the highway. While she enjoyed advocating for my students in the classroom, her background in journalism longed to investigate their sources of complaint and protect their right to a healthy future.

She holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of North Texas in broadcast journalism and world history and a minor in Spanish. In her time at UNT, she was inducted into the national journalism honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha, and was a Mayborn Scholar. She has also won a Lone Star Emmy Award.

Outside of the newsroom, she enjoys walking with her dog near the surrounding bayous. Some of her other hobbies include singing, reading and writing fiction.