Anna Phillips joins The Washington Post as national climate reporter

Announcement from Climate and Environment Editor Trish Wilson, Deputy Climate and Environment Editor Juliet Eilperin and Climate Solutions Editor Dayana Sarkisova:

We are thrilled to announce that Anna Phillips is joining The Post as its national climate reporter.

Anna has been a journalist for a dozen years, most recently in the Washington bureau of The Los Angeles Times, where she covered federal environmental policy and how climate change impacts California. She led an investigative series that showed how California undercounts the death toll from extreme heat and has reported on the Trump administration's environmental rollbacks and President Biden’s efforts to undo them. Before moving to Washington, she covered the Los Angeles school district, where her probe of financial abuses at a charter-school network drew national attention and prompted the state Board of Education to shut down the school.

Anna came to the LA Times in 2016 from the Tampa Bay Times, where she had what may be the most colorful job in journalism: Tampa courts reporter. One of the strangest cases she chronicled involved a husband and wife whose anti-government paranoia led them to kidnap their children and flee to Cuba on a 25-foot sailboat.

Anna grew up in Lower Merion, Pa., and earned her bachelor’s in American history from Columbia University. She lives in the District with her wife and scruffy terrier and enjoys hiking and meandering city walks.

Anna starts today. Please join us in welcoming her to The Post.