Rachel Dissell spoke to NPF Future of the American Child fellows May 10, 2023: “Getting to the Root of the Juvenile Justice Story.”

Rachel Dissell is Community + Special Projects Editor at Signal Cleveland and The Marshall Project–Cleveland. In 2020, she helped launch Cleveland Documenters, which trains and pays residents to make a public record of local government meetings. From 2002 until 2020 she worked for The Plain Dealer, where she wrote investigative pieces that changed laws, policies, hearts and minds.

Reinvestigating Rape, a series with reporter Leila Atassi, led to the testing of nearly 14,000 rape kits and investigations that resulted in indictments in nearly 800 cold cases in Cleveland. Researchers built on the project’s early discoveries to redefine the understanding of serial rape in Ohio and beyond.

Toxic Neglect, a series with colleague Brie Zeltner, exposed Cleveland’s poor track record for investigating when children were lead poisoned. The series sparked a community-wide effort to proactively protect children from the toxin, including a grassroots citizen petition drive and the formation of a coalition of more than 400 public, private and philanthropic partners who worked to pass a law that requires all rental homes in the city to be inspected for lead hazards.

In 2019, Case Closed, a series with Andrea Simakis, explored the systemic failures of Cleveland police through the experience of a woman who had to solve her own rape. Case Closed, won the 2020 Dart Award. Dissell’s 2008 series, Johanna: Facing Forward, about teen dating violence won the 2008 Dart Award. Dissell is also a founding board member of The Buckeye Flame and a member of the Cleveland VOTES advisory board. She lives in Cleveland with her partner, three children, a dog, four chickens and a tortoise.