Eliza Billingham
Eastern Iowa ReporterExpertise: Behavioral health, housing, development, religion and soccer.
Education: Master of Science in Journalism from Boston University; Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Ancient Languages from Wheaton College.
Favorite Iowa Destination: Biking the Hoover Nature Trail.
Experience:
- Selected as a 2023 public health fellow with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, where she produced a multimedia package profiling an illegal Christian addiction rehabilitation center outside Hanoi, Vietnam.
- Earned PMJA recognition for interviewing an ER nurse who's advocating for amputees to join the military.
- Honored by the Society of Professional Journalists and AAN Publishers for profile and environmental writing.
- Served as an assistant to reporter Emily Hanford to produce bonus episodes of APM's award-winning podcast Sold A Story.
- Reported on regional rent crises, city council, agriculture and other topics for Spokane Public Radio.
My Latest Stories
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Fatou Traore, an Ivory Coast native who has legally been living in Iowa City for two decades, faces imminent deportation to Sierra Leone. Supporters rallied Wednesday night calling for her release, and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks sent a personal letter to the head of Homeland Security asking for a stay on the deportation order. -
Data center development is expanding rapidly across the state due to Iowa’s cheap land and energy. Local governments have limited power when faced with development. Should they be the ones making big decisions for Iowa communities? -
President Donald Trump announced an $18 billion investment in a fully integrated American steel system, including a major steel plant coming to southeast Iowa's Lee County. Supporters say it will benefit the American economy and national security. -
A new rusty patched bumblebee sighting in Linn County is a good sign that habitat conservation efforts could be helping the federally endangered species. -
Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly visited rural Linn County to announce the loan, which is the final piece of financing the energy center needed. He called the recommissioning an early chapter of “an American nuclear renaissance.” -
Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks faces Democrat Christina Bohannan for the third time in a race for eastern Iowa’s 1st Congressional District. They both recently discussed Iowa's high cancer rates and different ideas about how to address it. -
The southeast corner of the Johnson County Administrative Building will become Dr. Lulu Merle Johnson Plaza, featuring a bronze statue of Johnson alongside plaques celebrating Black Iowans in Iowa City. -
The annual Perseid meteor shower will put on its best and brightest display between Aug. 12 and 13 from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. The atmospheric conditions are near perfect, but the weather conditions are not. -
NASA is partnering with the University of Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Des Moines Water Works to create a new tool to forecast water quality conditions. The goal is to combine satellite imagery with water quality monitors across the state to predict when nitrate concentrations in surface or ground water will reach dangerous levels. -
Google has been eyeing a site for a potential data center that's currently in unincorporated Linn County but could be annexed into Palo city limits. This week, Palo put a data center ordinance in place, while Linn County opened up talks to circumvent its newly instated moratorium.
