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Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga

Reporter, The Midwest Newsroom

Contact: r.shackelford@kcur.org

Job Title: Reporter

Topic Expertise: Healthcare; health equity; maternal health; health insurance/financing

Location: Kansas City

Geographic Expertise: Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri

Education: Bachelor's Degree, University of Missouri - Kansas City

Language: English

Honors & Awards: 

  • U.S. Maternal Health Press Fellowship, Every Mother Counts, 2026
  • Association of Health Care Journalists, Kansas-Missouri Health Journalism Fellow, 2024-26;
  • Kansas Association of Broadcasters, 2025 Sports Feature, “The death of a beloved former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader spotlights maternal mortality”
  • 1st Place Kansas Press Association 2024 & 2025 Excellence in Coverage of Diversity (team award)
  • 2nd Place PMJA 2023 Long Documentary, “Parade Park offered Black Kansas City families a chance for home ownership. Now it's crumbling”
  • 1st Place, Kansas Association of Broadcasters, News Feature (2026)
  • 1st place, Kansas Association of Broadcasters, Public Affairs Program (2026)

Membership: Bek is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists

About Bek

Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga is a reporter at The Midwest Newsroom and KCUR. She previously worked at the Kansas News Service (also based at KCUR) as a health equity reporter. At the Kansas News Service, Bek broke news on one of the largest tuberculosis outbreaks in the state and reported on a wide array of topics, such as the shortage of Black sperm donors or rural hospitals at risk of closure.

Bek is passionate about maternal health and how factors like quality of care, location, health care accessibility, race and cultural practices impact a persons' birth experience. She's covered stories about women's access (or lack of access) to freestanding birth centers, how maternal mortality disproportionately impacts women of color and how more women in their 40s are having babies than before.

Bek is known for her ability to find the needle-in-a-haystack type of sources, and she uses her expertise as a health reporter to uplift real peoples' voices and hold health systems, local government and other leaders accountable.