Erin McGroarty

Erin McGroarty is a political journalist currently covering policy and government for the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. Her recent reporting has covered incarceration policy, immigration, the 2024 election and mental health. Before moving to Wisconsin, Erin worked as a political journalist in Alaska where she produced award-winning coverage of congressional climate change reports and state budget cut impacts to social safety nets.

Erin was a 2025 fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation, reporting from Kyiv and other regions of central Ukraine on civilian impacts of Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. She was a 2023 IRE NICAR conference fellow and a 2022 Connect Scholar with the NLGJA. Erin served as a fellow at the Center for Journalism Ethics in 2021 while pursuing her master’s degree, and published work for the center exploring the ethical complications involved in current crime reporting practices and newsroom examinations of objectivity in the face of social justice movements.

Throughout her career, Erin has reported from Alaska, Wisconsin, Germany and Ukraine. Her reporting has been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the National Center on Disability and Journalism and the Alaska Press Club. Erin’s work can be found in the Capital Times, Wisconsin Watch, the Poynter Institute, Chicago Reader, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and the Juneau Empire. She holds an M.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an interdisciplinary B.A. in journalism, history and political science from the University of Alaska Fairbanks