INVESTIGATIVE PROJECTS
Longform Investigations
WASTELAND UNDERWATER
Texas Observer/Inside Climate News
On the central Texas coast, Lavaca Bay is already poisoned by mercury. Climate change will only make matters worse there—and at 944 other hazardous-waste sites across the country.
UP IN THE TOWER
Texas Monthly
When a deadly gas began leaking at the DuPont plant in La Porte, endangering hundreds of lives, the workers on the B shift did what they had to do. They grabbed their gear and went in.
DISAPPEARED
Texas Observer
Genetic genealogy is helping to crack cold cases and identify victims left nameless for decades. The process is surprisingly effective—and controversial.
TV/Radio
THE ELEVEN
About the A&E Series
Watch the trailer of "The Eleven," which follows investigators as they re-examine the murders of eleven teenage girls after a confession letter from inmate and convicted murderer Edward Harold Bell. Bell also confessed to Olsen in an interview.
Watch the trailer of the Eleven, released in 2017.
THE WRONG MAN
Houston Chronicle/ CNN
Texas executed its fifth teenage offender at 22 minutes after midnight on Aug. 24, 1993, after his last request for bubble gum had been refused and his final claim of innocence had been forever silenced.
This investigation was the subject of the CNN Death Row Stories episode,The Wrong Man.
Collaboration/Datajournalism
ABUSE OF FAITH
Houston Chronicle/ San Antonio Express News
20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms
SILENT SPILLS
Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
As first responders and residents struggled to save lives and property during the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey, the toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed.
SUPERTHREATS
InsideClimate News/NBC/Texas Observer
Battered, Flooded and Submerged: Many Superfund Sites are Dangerously Threatened by Climate Change The Obama administration directed the EPA to focus on climate-related threats. Now, the Trump administration refuses to even use the word.
Recent Work
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Texas Observer
A double murder. A missing baby. And a mysterious band of wandering Jesus Freaks. Who killed Dean and Tina Clouse in 1981? And is their daughter still alive?
POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Texas Observer
In Texas, Corrupt Politicians Face Little Accountability. The Texas Rangers are tasked with investigating corruption and crimes by public officials. Those officials are rarely held accountable. For our full collaborative investigation "Justice For Some" on the Texas Rangers with KXAN, KTEP, and the Fort Worth Report, go here..
UNINVESTIGATED
Texas Observer
"Uninvestigated and Uncounted: How Justices of the Peace Miss Important Clues in Death Investigations." In Texas, justices of the peace with little training can miss important clues in death investigations, and make mistakes tracking suicides, homicides, and COVID-19 deaths.
Editing/Training
CORONAVIRUS PIPELINE
Texas Observer
U.S. deportations of migrants have exported COVID-19 to Guatemala and prompted fear, chaos, and a collapse of already fragile health services.
DIGITAL AGE REPORTING
Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
Investigative Reporting in the Digital Age. A total of 3,877 students from 147 countries and territories registered for the instructor-led version of Investigative Reporting in the Digital Age, which ran from Feb. 3 to March 1, 2020.
TRAINING
Lise has conducted training and worked on behalf of nonprofit investigative journalism organizations for years, including Investigative Reporters & Editors, the International Center for Journalists, Quinto Elemento and the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers. She serves as a member of el jurado (the awards committee) for La Conferencia Latinoamericana de Periodismo de Investigación. Photo: Lise with journalist Adriana León of IPYS at COLPIN 2019