Brenda Wintrode

Brenda Wintrode covers state government, agencies and politics. Before joining The Baltimore Banner in May of 2022, Wintrode worked as a Roy W. Howard investigative reporting fellow at Wisconsin Watch. For nearly a year, she examined wrongful child abuse allegations made by a nationally-recognized child maltreatment expert that were later rejected by juries, court officials, law enforcement and other doctors. The series included joint investigations with the Anchorage Daily News and won a gold award from the Milwaukee Press Club’s 2021 Excellence in Journalism contest. As a reporter for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, she was the lead writer on an award-winning investigation of the federal CARES Act’s failure to prevent evictions during the pandemic. She covered the Maryland state government for the Capital News Service and did data analysis for Maryland Matters. Wintrode earned a bachelor's of science in business administration at Bryant University in Rhode Island. After a career switch, she was named the Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s outstanding master’s student when she graduated in 2020.