Lisa Yanick Litwiller, a former Center for Public Integrity director of audience whose humor, compassion, leadership and talent contributed to award-winning projects that focused on inequality, died of cancer Monday surrounded by her family at home in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
She was 46.
Yanick Litwiller came to Public Integrity in 2021, building an audience team that was central to the organization’s mission to report stories that confront inequality. She built an innovative partnership model that paired Public Integrity journalists with reporters from newsrooms around the country, resulting in important, impactful stories on topics from student homelessness to climate relocation.
Her former colleagues remember her as a supportive leader who led by example and cultivated a space for everyone to speak up, be heard and laugh.
“In an industry that is so often stressful, she spread joy. She helped people see what was possible and how to do better,” said Jamie Smith Hopkins, a Public Integrity editor.
Mc Nelly Torres, an editor at Public Integrity, said Yanick Litwiller’s superpower was to make people in the newsroom feel valued, respected and cared for as she pushed them to reach their full potential.
Torres remembers how Yanick Litwiller helped her to take a step back and strategize about how to reach local audiences in innovative ways. “Her command and style on building collaborations, setting Public Integrity’s talented newsroom at the center, was a great lesson to all of us,” Torres said.
Several of those collaborations — Harm’s Way and Toxic Labor — were organized with Columbia Journalism Investigations, Columbia Journalism School’s postgraduate reporting program. Kristen Lombardi, Columbia Journalism Investigations’ director and editor, said it was an honor and privilege to work with Yanick Litwiller on collaborative investigations.
“She cared so deeply about local news and its crucial role in lifting up marginalized and forgotten voices and watchdogging those in power,” Lombardi said. “All of us at CJI who worked closely with Lisa were inspired by her unflagging commitment to those ideals.”
Public Integrity’s audience engagement editor, Ashley Clarke, said Yanick Litwiller never missed an opportunity to uplift and praise her team. “She could so easily spot people’s strengths and potential even before they could,” Clarke said. “Her favorite question to ask was, ‘What’s your superpower?’”
Matt DeRienzo, who was editor in chief at Public Integrity during Yanick Litwiller’s tenure, also remembers her as a leader who lifted people up and made space for everyone’s ideas to be heard.
She believed “that every person in the room has unique skills, talent, perspective, knowledge or energy that can improve the work,” DeRienzo said. “She constantly advocated for expanding who was in the room. No idea was too big or ambitious enough if you embrace collaboration.”
Yanick Litwiller’s work at Public Integrity brought recognition from the industry. One honor she was particularly happy about: Public Integrity was a finalist for the Online News Association’s General Excellence Award in 2023, an award recognizing the best audience engagement work in the country.
Yanick Litwiller left Public Integrity in January to assume a new role as executive editor of innovation and daily news at Bridge Michigan.
Earlier, Yanick Litwiller worked for Hearst Newspapers where she spearheaded an investigation into sexual abuse of the Boys & Girls Clubs that resulted in safety policy changes and garnered several national awards, including the prestigious Investigative Reporters and Editors award.
IRE judges said of “At risk: Sexual abuse and Boys & Girls Clubs”: “Despite the national spotlight on child sexual abuse within trusted organizations, this investigation revealed a continuing lack of transparency and accountability at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and its affiliates. This team of reporters identified more than 100 cases of abuse involving 280 victims in 31 states. A powerful and high-impact investigation prompted by one reporter asking: How often does this happen?”
“Lisa understood the power of storytelling and of hearing directly from the vulnerable people, even if it makes for difficult listening,” said Amy Silverman, who worked with Public Integrity in 2022 on a story about housing for people with intellectual disabilities. “It was a dream come true to collaborate with such a smart, insightful, devoted individual.”
Alexia Fernández Campbell, a Public Integrity senior reporter covering labor and inequality, said Lisa deeply believed in Public Integrity’s journalism and in the power of investigative journalism to make lasting change.
“She had faith in us even when we didn’t have faith in ourselves,” Fernández Campbell said. “I am so grateful that I had the chance to work with Lisa — to know her. The world is a better place because she was here.”