One of Marissa Greene’s earliest memories is attending Sunday Mass with her grandmother. She would hold hands and sing hymns along with her grandmother’s congregation.
Growing up in Coppell and being surrounded by a diverse religious community shaped Greene into the person she is today.
Greene, a University of Texas at Austin graduate, will be joining the Fort Worth Report as its faith reporter June 1. She joins the Report as a fellow in the Report for America program, which also supports the work of growth reporter Sandra Sadek. Greene will cover Tarrant County’s faith-based communities, organizations, politics and culture.
Greene’s maternal grandmother practices Catholicism while her paternal grandmother practices Buddhism, she said. Exposure to both of those religions is what drew her to the beat.
“I was able to see how faith and religion impact not only my life but my community as well,” Greene said.
As a child, Greene was very curious and was never afraid to ask why, even if she didn’t get the answers she would expect, she said. Her curiosity is what drew her into the field of journalism.
She started at Austin Community College, where she was involved in her school’s media organization before attending UT Austin and writing for the Daily Texan. She was also an audience fellow at the Texas Tribune, where she learned how to develop a relationship between journalism and the local community.
This lesson was what drove her to join the RFA program and eventually become a reporter for the Fort Worth Report.
“I saw this as an opportunity to take what I love about journalism, which is building relationships with people, helping people make informed decisions and covering stories about my local community,” she said.
Thomas R. Martinez, Fort Worth Report’s managing editor, said Greene is a great addition to the team and the newsroom is pleased to add her on staff. Faith intersects with almost every beat at the Report, he said, and it’s an important undercovered community.
“We think with her background, she will hit the ground running and tell important faith stories that our readers want to read,” he said.
Taylor Coit is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at taylor.coit@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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