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Marc Perrusquia
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Director, Institute for Public Service Reporting
Memphis
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Biography
Marc Perrusquia is the director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting. Previously, he worked 29 years at The Commercial Appeal, the daily newspaper in Memphis, winning numerous state and national awards as he produced some of this city’s most memorable watchdog reporting. His investigations of Tennessee’s corrupt taxpayer-funded childcare system led to broad reforms and the criminal prosecutions of six people. Perrusquia’s long-running reporting on state senator John Ford and larger political corruption in Memphis inspired the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz bribery sting that altered the state’s political landscape. In 2003, he revealed how dozens of Habitat for Humanity families filed for bankruptcy or lost their homes to predatory lenders in Memphis, leading the nonprofit to pass nationwide reforms to promote financial literacy and protect Habitat homes. His investigation of practices by car title lenders who gouged customers with 264-percent interest rates and inescapable loan terms led to greater state regulation. His 2018 book, A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, tells the story of paid informant Ernest Withers and the abuses of political surveillance in Memphis. He reported and co-produced WKNO-FM public radio’s 2020 mini-documentary on Memphis’s rape kit crisis, The Waiting Decade, and served as a consultant to Stitcher’s 2022 ten-part podcast, Ernie’s Secret. He holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Minnesota.
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Company Info
Institute for Public Service Reporting
Memphis, , United States
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