Starting this week, award winning reporter Eesha Pendharkar is joining the Maine Morning Star team.
Pendharkar, who will be serving as a senior reporter, has covered K-12 and higher education nationally, and in Maine, for seven years. She has also worked as a general assignment reporter and is an experienced data journalist, training other journalists within her newsrooms and speaking at national data journalism conferences.
Pendharkar worked at the Bangor Daily News for three years, during which time she broke several important stories that led directly to changes in public policy. For example, her investigation into unchecked systemic racism at Bangor High School resulted in the first independent investigation and equity audit into district culture. Another investigation into the use of restraints and seclusion for students in special education resulted in changes in statewide policy.
She won several Maine Press Association awards, including first place for best spot news story in 2018, first place for best education story in 2021, and second place for best education story in 2019.
Pendharkar is returning to Maine from Washington, D.C., where since 2021 she has worked as a national reporter covering race and opportunity in education across the country for Education Week. At EdWeek, she covered the anti “critical race theory” movement, book bans, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, and other policy and educational equity issues for almost three years.
For the past several months, Pendharkar served as senior education reporter and data editor for The Maine Monitor.
Editor Lauren McCauley said Maine Morning Star is “honored and excited to welcome Eesha to join our team. Her skills and experience will be a tremendous asset as we continue to grow our coverage of state policy and its impact.”
McCauley added, “I know the people of Maine will be the real beneficiaries of her work.”
In a statement, Pendharkar said, “I’m looking forward to covering state politics and helping build the Maine Morning Star’s presence in the state as part of States Newsroom, and to bring my expertise in education and enterprise reporting to the organization.”
“I think this opportunity to report on state government and examine the impact of laws on Mainers’ lives is what makes this new job most exciting for me,” she said.
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