Melissa B. Taboada

Melissa Barragán Taboada is the editor of the Globe’s award-winning Great Divide team, which investigates educational inequities in Boston and throughout the state. Prior to joining the Globe in 2021, Taboada spent more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at the Austin American-Statesman, where she covered public education, including Texas education laws, school finance, the rise in charter schools, and student discipline. As an assistant metro editor at the Statesman, she led the coverage of K-12 and higher education, as well as city politics and regional growth. She oversaw projects about how Austin’s proposal to shutter schools disproportionately harmed Black and Latino students. Taboada also was an adjunct professor teaching a "Reporting on Education" course in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, her alma mater. She was honored by the Texas APME for her family life column and by the Central Texas Council of Child Protection Boards for her stories on child welfare issues. She also was twice awarded the Texas School Bell Award by the Texas State Teachers Association for her education coverage. In 2023, Taboada was chosen for the inaugural ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program. Her work has also appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Hechinger Report, and USA Today.