Orion Donovan Smith covers the federal government’s impact on the Inland Northwest, reporting from DC for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, WA. He grew up outside Concrete, WA, before attending Sedro-Woolley High School and the University of Washington in Seattle. As a graduate student at American University, Smith wrote about immigration policy and goat yoga for The Washington Post, produced shows for the WAMU/NPR program 1A and worked as an Investigative Reporting Workshop fellow on the PBS Frontline documentary Plastic Wars. He’s a Regional Reporters Association board member and a Report for America corps member.

Smith won the 2022 NPF Feddie Award for outstanding reporting about the impact of federal laws and regulations on local communities.