The Florida Trib is a nonprofit newsroom producing high-impact government accountability and investigative journalism in the public interest. The Trib’s mission is to shine a light on systemic problems and solutions, hold those in power accountable, and focus on undercovered topics through collaboration with other news organizations across Florida.
Since its founding in 2021, The Trib’s journalism has has had an outsize impact for its small size, and won more than two dozen awards at the state, regional and national level. We fill gaps in our media ecosystem, reporting on topics and issues that would otherwise go uncovered, with a focus on stories that make an impact.
OUR IMPACT
We believe news in the public interest has the power to improve our community by informing citizens and holding government accountable. Some examples of the impact The Trib’s stories have had include:
Questioning legislative votes: Our examination – in partnership with The Miami Herald – exposed a South Florida representative whose votes benefited her son’s employer as she tried to help school bus camera vendor, BusPatrol, win new laws and contracts. The Herald’s Editorial Board later rescinded its endorsement. Our continued partnership and coverage of BusPatrol led to the Miami sheriff suspending the program.
Questioning state data: When The Trib asked why Florida’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee hadn’t publicly released any annual findings in years, agency officials quietly uploaded reports for deaths that occurred in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Resignation of a sheriff: Our relentless investigative work revealed that the Jacksonville sheriff had illegally moved out of the county, resulting in his subsequent resignation.
We’ve joined forces with some of Florida’s most prestigious newspapers—including the Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times, Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel—to amplify our reach and deliver impactful stories to a broader audience. Our reporters have worked with The New York Times and other national publications to provide local reporting to a global audience. Additionally, our continuous collaboration with local TV stations and public media ensures our investigations reach audiences across platforms.
Community engagement is at the heart of our mission by hosting events and finding new ways to deliver reporting to our neighbors, from holding events to creating WhatsApp groups to distribute information directly to readers. During the local redistricting process, we synthesized our reporting into brochures. As a result, hundreds of people attended Jacksonville City Council public hearings, waving our brochures and voicing their concerns about racial gerrymandering. In 2024, we joined a coalition of organizations to educate voters about school board elections, and held live events online and in person to bring voters into the process of reporting on elections.
OUR TEAM
At the forefront of The Florida Trib’s mission is a dedicated team of experienced journalists:
Deirdre Conner is CEO & Publisher of The Florida Trib. Prior to returning to journalism, she was a capacity builder with extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, most recently serving as Vice President at the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida. An eighth-generation Floridian, Deirdre started her career as an award-winning reporter at the Naples Daily News, and later The Florida Times-Union, where her stories on children, youth and seniors sparked civic action and led to policy change at the local and state level. She was the founding Board Chair of The Trib. You can reach Deirdre at deirdre.conner@floridatrib.org. More by Deirdre Conner
Nate Monroe is Executive Editor of The Florida Trib. He has been a journalist in the Southeast for the past 15 years. Most recently, he wrote a column about Florida for the USA Today Network. He was previously a metro columnist, beat reporter and investigative reporter for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, where he focused on covering the largest municipal government in Florida. Prior to arriving in Jacksonville in 2013, Nate was a reporter for newspapers in the Florida Panhandle and South Louisiana.
Nate’s work has won local, state and national awards and led to federal convictions, voter-led reforms, and other significant impacts.
Casey Frank is The Trib’s Special Project Editor. He joined The Trib in fall 2024 after retiring as the senior editor in charge of the Miami Herald’s investigative team. Over a 10-year span, his team shared in two Pulitzer Prizes and was a finalist three other times. He twice served as a Pulitzer jurist. More by Casey Frank
Nichole Manna is The Florida Trib’s Senior Investigative Reporter. She has been with the organization since 2023 and has covered the criminal justice system for more than a decade.
Nichole has extensively covered conditions at the Duval County jail and in 2024 received first place from the Green Eyeshade Awards in online investigations for her reporting of medical neglect at the facility. That series of stories was recognized with awards at the local, regional and national level. She took home the first place prize for a feature story in a small newsroom from the Online Journalism Awards in 2025 for her series, ‘Cold-Blooded’, which dissected a 1993 death penalty case and questioned whether the defendant received a fair trial.
Prior to joining The Trib, Nichole was an investigative reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas where she was a Livingston Award finalist for a series of stories about a neighborhood with the lowest life expectancy in the state. Her work helped get residents access to free pop-up clinics and they continue to receive help with food disparities.
She is currently working with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network to produce an investigative project.
Michael Vasquez is an investigative reporter at The Florida Trib.
He previously worked at The Chronicle of Higher Education — where his investigations led to policy changes at both the state and federal levels. Michael also led a team of reporters as education editor for Politico, where he spearheaded the team’s 2016 Campaign coverage of education issues.
He began his reporting career at the Miami Herald, covering both politics and education. His work there included Higher-Ed Hustle, a yearlong investigation of fraud and abuse in Florida’s for-profit-college industry. The series led to the closure of Miami’s most politically powerful for-profit college, the arrest of its owner, and a change in state law that created stronger protections for students.
His work has been recognized with multiple state and national awards, including a National Headliner Award, multiple Education Writers Association Awards, two Sunshine State Awards, and a Florida Society of News Editors Award.
A native of Queens, N.Y., Michael earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Florida International University.
Kate Payne is The Trib’s state government reporter.
She’s spent her career in nonprofit newsrooms in Florida and Iowa and her reporting has run the gamut, from interviewing presidential candidates on the campaign trail to middle schoolers in the lunch line.
Kate has won awards for her political reporting, sound editing and feature writing and was named 2024 journalist of the year by the Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Kate’s previous newsrooms include the Associated Press and WLRN Public Media in Miami. Her stories and photographs have been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR and PBS, and her reporting on the death penalty has been cited in a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trinity Webster-Bass is The Florida Trib’s inaugural Investigative Journalism Fellow and a Jacksonville native. A recent Howard University graduate, she served as president of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, reported for The Hilltop, and covered the 2024 Democratic National Convention and local politics for Howard University News Service.
She began her career interning at WJCT 89.9 FM in Jacksonville before joining The Washington Post as an audio intern, where she produced an investigative story on police use of AI. Most recently, Trinity interned at The New York Times through the Ida B. Wells Society, reporting on cannabis legislation and pitfalls in the organ donation process.
She received awards from the White House Correspondents’ Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Association of Black Journalists for her work.
Liz Flaisig is The Florida Trib’s Partnerships Manager.
Her experience in journalism includes weekly, daily, and investigative reporting and editorial board writing at several publications including the Florida Times-Union, the Jacksonville Business Journal, and the Fort Pierce Tribune. More recently, Liz served as department chair and instructor of creative writing at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts for 15 years. In addition to her research and development work for The Tributary, she is a private tutor for middle and high school students in English Language Arts and a graduate student in University of Rhode Island’s Library and Information Studies program. More by Liz Flaisig
Ale’ta Turner coordinates events for The Florida Trib.
She is the founder of Built To Rock Events, with 14 years of experience planning events for nonprofits, businesses, and community organizations. She is passionate about creating meaningful experiences that connect people and purpose. Ale’ta holds a degree in Advertising/Public Relations, an Event Management & Design Certificate, and First Aid/CPR/AED certification. More by Ale’ta Turner
