Madeleine Valera is a general assignment reporter for Civil Beat.

Madeleine previously lived in Miami and worked as a reporter for McClatchy where she covered a variety of stories ranging from rare creature sightings and alligator attacks to police departments and government agencies accused of misconduct.

In 2020, Madeleine traveled to Vietnam where she spent about a year teaching English and working as a freelance reporter. She wrote a story for the Southeast Asia Globe about taxi drivers in Ho Chi Minh City serving on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. She also spent time volunteering at an animal shelter, visiting elephants in the rainforest and riding motorbikes through the mountains.

Madeleine also worked for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island where she covered city government and the Black Lives Matter movement. She wrote an award-winning piece about how Black women in the state experience higher rates of pregnancy-related complications than white women and often have their concerns overlooked by doctors.

Her journalism career began at the Cape Cod Times in Massachusetts, where she worked the late-night police beat. After racing to the scenes of dozens of fires, car crashes and murders, she started delving into deeper issues. She earned a fellowship that took her to John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York to further her investigation into how local police departments were handling sexual assault kits.

Madeleine and her boyfriend moved to Hawaii with not much more than some clothes and their inflatable kayak. She loves to explore and learn as much as she can about the world and her local communities. Please feel free to reach out with story ideas or just to chat at mvalera@civilbeat.org or 808-978-7369.