René Kladzyk

René Kladzyk (she/her) is an investigator at POGO. René previously worked as an investigative reporter at El Paso Matters, a nonprofit news outlet covering the U.S-Mexico border region, where she advanced in-depth and impactful coverage of immigration, human rights, criminal justice, and health news. Her reporting has been published in TIME Magazine, Kaiser Health News, Teen Vogue, the Texas Observer, the El Paso Times, i-D, the Creative Independent, and more. She received multiple awards for her journalism at the 2022 Texas Managing Editors Awards, including first place for a team effort, third place in specialty reporting for her immigration reporting, and an honorable mention for feature writing. René received her undergraduate degree in political science from Northern Arizona University, and her masters in geography from the University of Oregon. When she isn’t investigating wrongdoing and abuses, René is an independent musician who performs under the moniker Ziemba.