Ken Ward Jr. is a co-founder of Mountain State Spotlight[1] and former staff reporter for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and writes about the coal mining industry and its impacts on Appalachian communities.
His work has focused on mine safety, mountaintop removal,[3] environmental and labor issues.
He has covered the Sago and the Upper Big Branch Mine disasters that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners.
Ward won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship[4] in 2006 to research and write about mining deaths in the coal industry.
His work and research on coal mine issues as an Alicia Patterson Fellow earned him an Investigative Reporters and Editors medal.