Lily Altavena
Board Member
Lily Altavena is national reporter at Chalkbeat. She covers K-12 education through the eyes of students, teachers, parents and policymakers. She’s covered the rise of a backlash against technology in education, major federal policy shifts and questions around artificial intelligence’s role in learning.
Before Chalkbeat, Lily covered education inequities across Michigan for the Detroit Free Press. There, her award-winning work examined the small and big ways public education in the state could better serve historically marginalized students, digging into state history and covering breaking education news. During her four-year stint at The Arizona Republic, Lily documented contentious school board meetings as political winds shifted around education. She also covered the coronavirus pandemic, and its effects on students, both academic and personal.
Lily graduated with a bachelor’s degree from New York University in metropolitan studies and journalism. She also received her master’s degree in mass communications from Arizona State University, where she concentrated her work in investigative reporting.
