Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who weaves data analysis with traditional shoeleather reporting. All the best stories come from tips.

I currently cover the fast food and restaurant industry for Reuters out of New York City.

Previously, I was on Reuters’ investigative desk in London, where I was the inaugural Sir Harry Evans Fellow for Global Investigative Journalism. As part of that fellowship I lectured on journalism at Durham University. I also co-wrote an in-depth story on how Tesla mishandled private recordings taken from customer vehicles. The article spurred action from lawmakers, spawned a class action lawsuit, and was part of a six-part series on Musk’s business empire that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

For the Los Angeles Times, I unmasked a secret gang inside the sheriff’s department. My longform feature showed how the department had fired these deputies, then was forced to rehire most of them with backpay, even while one deputy faced felony criminal charges.

In San Antonio, Texas, working at a nonprofit newsroom, I chronicled how amateur investors exploiting regulatory loopholes caused chaos in working class apartment complexes across the city. My work was credited with reforms to the city’s inspections process.

In East Tennessee, writing for a local daily, I won the Malcolm Law Award for Investigative Reporting from the Tennessee Associated Press, for my series showing how a local government’s new insurance program inadvertently pushed mom-and-pop pharmacies to the brink of bankruptcy. My coverage of the ongoing opioid crisis also won recognition from the Tennessee Press Association.

I graduated summa cum laude from the master’s degree program at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California, where I was the 2020 Selden Ring Fellow for Investigative Journalism. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Oberlin College in 2016.

Outside of writing, I enjoy playing the banjo and bicycling. I’m from East Texas. I promise I don’t boast as much in person, but that’s just the nature of personal career websites.

Email: waylonwc@gmail.com

US #: +1 (903) 253 – 6473

Whatsapp (UK) #: +44 7522 104098