Hi! I’m Rachell Sanchez-Smith, a reporter for the NPR affiliate – KUAF 91.3, and a senior undergraduate student in journalism and political science, eexpected to graduate in May 2024 from the University of Arkansas. I’m currently a general assignment reporter for Ozarks At Large, our daily hour long news show covering Northwest Arkansas, the Arkansas River Valley, and much more. While I’ve covered a lot, I’ve reported primarily about health, labor, human rights, and government. 

Past Work

I’ve reported for ArkansasCovid, Facing South, and the Associated Press. My work has appeared in the Capital News Service, Arkansas, Nonprofit News Network, KUAR-NPR, KTUL-TV (Tulsa, OK), Arkansas Times, KATV-TV, Labor Notes, and the Arkansas Business Journal. I’ve also reported on location at protests, businesses, outside poultry factories, and from the Arkansas Capitol. Oftentimes, doing investigative work and interpreting simultaneously for a team of journalists.

My favorite kind of reporting involves investigative work: deep research utilizing court records, legal documents, talking to essential sources and combing through legislative bills.

I love reporting alongside a team of journalists and have experience dividing teams to conquer breaking news or tackling lengthy reporting projects. The biggest team being a 30+ journalist project which resulted in the Essential and Exposed series. This project involved student journalists from Merrill College, the University of Arkansas, Boston University and Stanford University, and we came together to investigate which industries and workers were most affected by the pandemic and the regulatory agencies who often failed to protect them. 

So far, I’ve produced over 100+ stories about hard news and features in the Ozarks, primarily in audio with many transcripts and accompanying articles. In total, I’ve been a journalist for over six years including my earliest years as an editor at the Mountie Spectrum in my hometown of Rogers, AR.