Alia Wong

Alia Wong is an award-winning journalist who serves as education collaborations editor at The Associated Press. In this role, she manages special projects, including partnerships with other newsrooms and researchers.

She previously covered inequities in education for USA TODAY. Her coverage, from breaking news to months-long feature projects, spanned all education levels and settings, including child care, K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions. Alia also previously worked as a staff writer and associate editor at The Atlantic, where she developed its education section. Born and raised in Hawai‘i, she began her journalism career as a reporter at Honolulu Civil Beat. Among her award-winning stories have been a series on Hawaiian immersion schools and investigations into the handling of concussions by high-school athletic programs.

Alia has immersed herself in schools on the Pine Ridge reservation and in a college in the process of shutting down. She has spent days in classrooms with preschoolers still learning how to talk and third-graders still learning how to read. Her work has been supported by various fellowships, including through the Education Writers Association and the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. Alia graduated summa cum laude from Boston University in May 2012 with degrees in journalism and Latin American studies. She attended BU as a Martin Luther King Jr. scholar.