Investigative reporter
David Waters is Distinguished Journalist in Residence and assistant director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.
There are 90 articles by David Waters :
Minda Cox was born in a village in India 33 years ago and adopted 22 months later by a nurse from America. She was born without legs and arms, an extremely rare birth defect known as congenital amputation.
Team of teens from Memphis neighborhoods counter “pay-to-play” youth sports machine with Play Where You Stay.
Chip Washington wanted to give his kidney to his ailing wife, but he wasn’t a match. “What else can I do?” he asked doctors.
On March 26, 2020, 20 days after his retirement party, Kenneth Bradshaw died. He was 64. Now a summer camp scholarship will honor his memory.
Rev. Kathryn Kimmel will lead the Midtown Memphis congregation, which first met in 1839 in a log cabin near the Mississippi River.
Father Nicholas Vieron taught his Adult Greek Class every spring from 1972 to 2019. The poster, made by his former student Barbara Austin, shows the Lord’s Prayer, handwritten in Greek.
“This is where the poor are. This is where the Prophet would be. So this is where we need to be.”
When an ailing Black Episcopal priest needed a kidney, his friend, a white businessman, didn’t hesitate.
Failed contract negotiations add to Head Start’s troubled local history, but advocates say that shouldn’t overshadow impressive pre-K advances. Related story: How child care centers reveal pre-K’s future in Shelby County
Early childhood education advocates say access to high-quality child care is the next goal for more than 40,000 children under age 4. Related story: What the SCS/Porter-Leath split means for the future of pre-K in Memphis
Here’s how a handful of white legislators changed how Black history is taught in Tennessee. Teachers at Grizz Prep, surrounded by history, pledge to ‘teach truth' about race Related story:
Social studies teachers question, challenge new state law that restricts instruction on race, racism.Related story:
Most educators agree reading instruction in the earliest grades should include phonics, but that’s where the disagreements begin.
City releases bodycam footage, requires MPD to refer all excessive force cases to district attorney.
Members of the Indian immigrant community send planeload of oxygen concentrators, other aid to help pandemic-plagued nation.
Despite all the “top-down” efforts to guide reading instruction, effective teachers know that all programs and methods work for some children, but none work for every child.
Tennessee governors have been remaking school reading policies for 40 years, and yet reading achievement scores have barely budged.
Tennessee’s new elementary school reading policies are the product of a tangled web of government, business and academics that has reshaped national and state reading policies time and again.
Jesuit priest who lived with Poor Clares remembered for his service to poor, allegiance to Jesus
Dr. Manoj Jain has spent decades tracking viral and bacterial killers in Memphis and around the world.
Lawsuit claims city “improperly denied” reporter access to decisive bodycam recordings
SCS board members, teachers raise questions, concerns about cost, value of consultant Donyall Dickey’s new and expanding “Integrated Approach” literacy plan.
Toni Woods feels safer after second dose, but she knows her patients and her mother still need her to keep working, avoid risk.
Le Bonheur, U of M team up to provide free mental health counseling to kids treated for acute trauma.
Revenue lost in Memphis in May, Elvis Week cancellations compound hotel’s COVID-19 problems.