Brandi Kellam is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist covering higher education at the intersection of housing inequality. Most recently, she was a reporter for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, where she led the series “Uprooted”, investigating how universities expanded campuses by displacing Black and marginalized communities. The series also exposed limited oversight of Virginia’s college presidents, allowing much of their correspondence to remain indefinitely shielded from public view. It further explored the present-day implications of university-led displacement in Black communities, including ongoing campus expansion resulting in complete erasure and the implementation of administrative policies that limited opportunities for Black student enrollment. “Uprooted” prompted the creation of a Virginia state legislative commission and a separate local task force in Newport News, both exploring redress for impacted families.
Brandi has received a Gracie Award, Columbia’s Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, and top honors from the Education Writers Association, including the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize. She also received a Regional Emmy for directing the companion mini-documentary to “Uprooted.”
Brandi was previously a producer for NBC and CBS News. Her work has also appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education and ESSENCE. She began her journalism career co-hosting a public affairs radio program in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region.
As a Spencer Fellow, she will expand on her work in Virginia while further investigating how American universities across the country displaced marginalized communities.