By: Brenna Medeiros

PROVIDENCE, R.I. –  Through meaningful connections, Leah Crowley uses her journalism platform to bring positive change to her community.

While Crowley may only be 25, she is as driven as seasoned reporters. She has written 2,793 articles in her career, ranging in topics from environmental concerns to the opening of local affordable housing. 

She knew from a young age that she wanted to become a journalist, but as she got older, she realized that it could be used as a force for good. Crowley understood the impact her storytelling could have on the community.

Given the weight of the possible impact she could have in mind, Crowley attended the University of Rhode Island in the journalism program, where she wrote for the school newspaper, The Good Five Cent Cigar. During her almost 2 and a half years at the paper, she was able to work her way to being an editor and earn two awards for journalism: the RTDNF Presidents Scholarship and the Peter Lord Environmental Journalism Scholarship.

Both of these scholarships highlight Crowley’s drive for excellence during her college years and show that even during the early years of her career, her work was being recognized for its impact.

While she was a Senior at URI, Crowley was offered an internship at WPRI 12 as a digital news intern, where she was able to get real-world experience working in the newsroom. She was able to pitch and write her own stories, put them on the website, and learn how to clip newscasts.

Lee Dooley, the Digital Director at WPRI 12, reflected on Crowley’s standout internship, “She was a standout intern, just always showing tons of initiative, being creative, taking on extra things, that you know, weren’t asked of her.

Her time during her internship paid off, as Crowley was offered a job at WPRI Channel 12 as a news producer for the 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 11 p.m. weekend newscasts. As she graduated from URI with a degree in journalism, her news producer job began. After just over a year and a half as a news producer, Crowley was then offered a new position as a digital reporter and content producer.

As a digital reporter, Crowley used her creativity to not only help her community but also put her love of storytelling to use. At WPRI Channel 12, she created a series called Mini Microphone, talking to an assortment of the station's employees about differing topics.

Dooley praised Crowley for launching a series that shows the personality of employees at the station, “She brings really great ideas like the mini mic, you know, the mini mic that she does… [it] just gets good color telling the story and giving the personality of everyone that works here at the TV station.”

The Mini Microphone series allowed Crowley to tell viewers the story of employees at the station, but what she really wants to tell is the story of her community.

Reporters at WPRI get many emails and tips, but Crowley says she tries to read every single one. “We get a lot of tips, and I try and make sure I read every single one. That’s how I found a lot of stories and a lot of things of people reaching out, asking for someone to listen, basically.”

Searching through those tips, Crowley found one story that had a lasting impact on her. She had seen a story about a 43-year-old missing woman in Cranston who was experiencing homelessness and had a drug abuse problem. Crowley then got in contact with the woman's mother and described how that interaction made her feel like she was making a difference, “I got in touch with her mom and just published this article on how she was missing, and this mom was just so grateful and said that she’d been trying for two months to get somebody to publish that her daughter was missing.”

Crowley’s love for storytelling and journalism can be traced back to her parents, both journalists themselves. She recalled growing up in her Plainville home, camcorder in hand, making and editing family videos, “I think that’s really where I sort of got my start for storytelling and just enjoying taking videos, and editing, and getting used to those kinds of software.”

Crowley has reported on human interest stories that have drawn attention to the Red Cross aiding a community after a fire, to families collecting 10k pounds of food to donate to Rhode Island families in need. Her articles covered different topics, yet all aimed to keep their communities informed.

One specific story stuck out to Crowley, bringing her back to why she wanted to do community news.

Crowley exclusively reported on a story regarding the Bree Boulais v. City of Warwick case. Both victims in the case, Bree Boulais and Peter Broomfield, spoke to Crowley about the harassment they had suffered at the Warwick Water Division starting in 2022. “The one I did on Warwick, what was happening there in the water department, where these two employees were sexually harassed and discriminated against and had filed a lawsuit.”

While Crowley acknowledged that it may not be the biggest story nationally, she believed it was really important to the victims and to the town of Warwick. She saw it as something that she thought deserved to be shown to a wider audience. To Crowley, making community connections will always be something that is a priority when it comes to her work. Those lasting connections allow more members of the community to feel that they can trust her and could come to her with their stories.