Johnathan Hettinger focuses on pesticide coverage for Investigative Midwest.
Growing up in central Illinois, Johnathan saw and had family members working in all aspects of agribusiness, from boots-in-the-field farming and raising livestock to spreading fertilizer, managing grain elevators and trading commodities.
Sadly, though, he didn’t have a tractor for “Drive your tractor to school day” at Monticello High School.
Johnathan is a proud 2015 graduate of the University of Illinois, where he worked for four years at The Daily Illini, the best student newspaper in the state. After graduation, Johnathan worked at The News-Gazette, the daily newspaper in Champaign, Ill., where he covered the Champaign and Urbana municipal governments and the University of Illinois.
Honors: Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting in 2022; Society for Environmental Journalists’ Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Small; Honorable mention in SEJ’s Nina Mason Pulliam Award for Outstanding Environmental Reporting
