Joan Garrett McClane has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007. Before becoming the newspaper's project editor, she covered business, higher education and the court system. But in recent years she has mostly focused on reporting investigative and narrative pieces on everything from gang culture to suicide to the child welfare system. And her work to highlight the issues facing those on the fringes of society has earned the paper national recognition. This year the Associated Press named McClane "Journalist of the Year" for the state of Tennessee, and in 2014 she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series she spearheaded on Chattanooga's unsolved murder rate and the no snitch culture of the inner city. She has received the national Casey Medal for writing about children and families and the national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her feature writing. She has also been a finalist for the Livingston Award for young journalists, the Dart Award for coverage of trauma and the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Award for Distinguished Writing on Diversity. When she isn't chasing stories, she likes hosting friends and family at her home in Red bank and curling up on the couch for Netflix marathons with her husband, Matt, and 4-year-old rescue mutt named Gidget. Contact Joan at 423-757-6601 or jmcclane@timesfreepress.com.
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday to approve the city's request to rezone the former Harriet Tubman public housing site for light industrial use, but a portion of the property along Roanoke Avenue was reserved for residential use.
by Joan Garrett McClaneThe Unity Group and other community leaders gathered in front of Chattanooga City Hall asked Mayor Andy Berke to pull the city's rezoning request for the former Harriet Tubman public housing site.
by Joan Garrett McClaneThe Chattanooga City Council will decide Tuesday night whether to declare three city-owned buildings near City Hall surplus property.
by Joan Garrett McClaneTHIS SERIES WAS reported for more than a year. To have a foundation of knowledge on the issues of poverty, income inequality and economic mobility, reporters Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick Smith read more than 250 peer-reviewed studies published by major research institutions and nonprofit organizations and read a dozen books written by social scientists.
by Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick SmithHow searching for the solution to American poverty changed a reporter's life.
by Joan Garrett McClaneIn Chattanooga, we ask schools to teach children, not raise them. But one local educator, who fears struggling schools have long been misunderstood, is crossing the line and proving that when disadvantaged children are truly supported, the impossible comes into view.
by Joan Garrett McClaneA hard-hit coal mining community has a lesson to teach Chattanooga about the power of community bonds, the impact of humble leadership and the healing effect of restored trust.
by Joan Garrett McClaneThe lives of too many black Chattanoogans are marked by poverty, struggle, poor health, violence, low wages and an inability to break free from the segregation and isolation that follows them from birth to adulthood, a new report published by the Chattanooga NAACP says.
by Joan Garrett McClaneThe FBI is not calling Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez a terrorist -- not yet, at least.
by Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick SmithThe windy road to Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez's Hixson home is peppered with churches and subdivisions.
by Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick SmithReplacing some Hamilton County students' textbooks with iPads was a move intended to boost faltering public education performance.
by Joan Garrett McClane and Tim OmarzuView our coverage of the story of Deanna Duncan's struggle against death.
by Joan Garrett McClaneView DAY THREE of our special coverage on suicides.
by Joan Garrett McClaneView DAY THREE of our special coverage on suicides.
by Joan Garrett McClaneView DAY ONE of our special coverage on suicides.
by Joan Garrett McClaneJesse Jackson stood before almost a dozen Chattanooga pastors, both black and white.
by Yolanda Putman and Joan Garrett McClaneA brief time line of the Rev. Paul McDaniel's service in Chattanooga:
by Yolanda Putman and Joan Garrett McClaneSpeak No Evil
by Joan Garrett McClane* National Alliance on Mental Illness, Chattanooga
by Joan Garrett McClaneSidney McDonald had grown accustomed to lurching forward, blue and white braces strapped to his legs to keep them from buckling. But for 13 years, his legs haven't carried him at all.
by Joan Garrett McClane