Alisha Pina, a member of The Providence Journal’s Statehouse bureau, a long-serving staffer, and the only reporter of color on the ProJo’s staff, is leaving the newspaper.
Pina is working her last day for the statewide daily on Friday.
On Twitter, Pina said she is becoming spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.
“This was not an easy decision,” Pina wrote in her tweet. “There are a plethora of emotions because this is the only main job I have had in my adult life. I thank ProJo and incredible colleagues, past and present, for contributing to the woman I am now.”
In an interview, Pina said she’s making the change mostly because “it’s an opportunity to give back more to the state that I love and to help our youth.”
She said an additional factor was a pending change in her job responsibilities to cover state agencies and Cranston. (Reporter Greg Smith, who has covered the Cranston beat in recent years, was recently assigned to cover the East Bay.)
Pina said she was among the last participants a high school internship program to attract young people of color to the ProJo when she began reporting there in 1995. She was hired on the permanent staff in 2000, after graduating from Boston University.
While the Journal has routinely staffed the Statehouse with three reporters in recent history, it remains unclear if Pina’s position will be filled, or if the newspaper will send another reporter to Smith Hill to succeed her.
RIPR has made an inquiry on that question with ProJo executive editor Dave Butler, and we’ll post his response if we hear back.
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, offered this comment on the importance of maintaining staffing in the Journal’s Statehouse bureau: “As the state’s leading government watchdog, the Providence Journal is crucial to keeping Rhode Islanders informed about our government. We hope the Journal honors its historic commitment to comprehensive coverage of state government and keeps the State House bureau fully staffed with three reporters. Any retreat from fully covering state government will come at a high price to the public interest.”
Reporter John Hill, president of the Providence Newspaper Guild, said the ProJo has not filled vacancies created by recent departures, including those of political columnist Ed Fitzpatrick and reporter Rich Salit.
The Statehouse has remained a signature of the Journal’s news coverage, with the paper deploying additional reporters at times — particularly the close of the legislative session — to cover a range of issues. The other reporters in the paper’s Smith Hill bureau are Jennifer Bogdan and Patrick Anderson.
When legislative session closed last year with an overnight session, Pina was among the ProJo reporters there to document what happened.
The Journal’s Statehouse bureau has long been a launching pad for reporters who’ve gone on to other assignments, including in recent history Steve Peoples of The Associated Press and Cynthia Needham and Mark Arsenault of The Boston Globe, among others.
Pina is known in part as a skilled feature writer, and was assigned to the Statehouse last year after a variety of other assignments, including a stint covering Providence City Hall. The move to the Capitol came as part of longtime bureau chief Katherine Gregg’s reassignment from the Statehouse.
As the only reporter of color on the Journal’s staff, Pina has spoken in a video for the newspaper about facing racial discrimination and discouragement in Rhode Island.
Since being assigned to the Statehouse, Pina has made a niche of offering profiles of lawmakers like Reps. Aaron Regunberg and Moira Walsh, among others.
She’s expected to be recognized for her reporting by the Rhode Island House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon, the last day of the legislative week.
Pina is also a skilled powerhouse singer. Her performances have been a highlight at the annual Providence Newspaper Guild Follies at the Venus de Milo in Swansea, Massachusetts. During the most recent Follies, she brought down the house with a version of Adele’s “Hello” — poking fun at Rhode Island’s ongoing UHIP debacle.
This post has been updated.
