Eilís O'Neill
Reporter
About
Eilís is a reporter covering health. She focuses on health inequities, substance use and addiction, infectious diseases, mental health, and reproductive and maternal health.
Eilís came to KUOW in 2016. Before that, she worked as a freelance reporter, first in South America, and then in New York City. Her work has aired on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, APM’s Marketplace, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and other programs.
Eilís' work as part of a team covering Covid-19 outbreaks and vaccine hesitation in Washington won a regional Murrow award, as did a series about children who lost parents to Covid-19. Her series about the opioid crisis on the Olympic Peninsula won several regional Society for Professional Journalists awards as well as a national Public Media Journalists Association award.
Eilís grew up in Seattle and was a high school intern at KUOW, in the program that later became RadioActive. She has a Master's in Science, Health, and Environment Reporting from Columbia University. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children.
Location: Seattle
Languages: English, Spanish
Pronouns: she/her
Stories
-
Peruvians in the Yakima Valley on edge after couple deported by ICE
Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, ICE picked up and deported a Peruvian couple in Sunnyside. Friends say they were asylum seekers who had missed a hearing. Now, the whole community is on edge.
-
Refugees are still coming to Washington state despite Trump's policies. But help is hard to find
Unlike other refugees who must wait for the government to book their travel and connect them with a resettlement agency, some refugees can buy their own plane tickets if they have the means. But once they arrive in the U.S., there’s no guarantee the federal government will offer them any help at all.
-
ICE detains leader of farmworker union in northwest Washington state
Farm worker activist Alfredo Juarez Zeferino, known in his community as “Lelo,” was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, March 25, and is being held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
-
The flu is still going around Washington. It’s not too late to get your shot
To date, at least 296 people in Washington state have died of the flu since the fall. But it’s not too late to get the shot if you haven’t already.
-
UW Medicine employee, green card holder detained by ICE in Tacoma
Lewelyn Dixon was on her way back to the Seattle area on Feb. 28 after visiting family in the Philippines when she was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sent to the immigration detention facility in Tacoma.
-
The U.S. needs kidney doctors. The Trump administration deported one despite her valid visa
Dr. Rasha Alawieh's deportation is the latest in a recent string of unusual arrests by immigration officials at U.S. borders, and not the first in which attorneys and judges have decried a lack of due process.
-
Nearly 3 million immigrants got amnesty under Reagan. Some of them still work on Washington's farms
As immigration enforcement ramps up, farms and growers in Washington and across the U.S. are at risk of losing their workforce and the skill that comes with seasoned workers.
-
Federal judge in Seattle questions Trump's move to block refugees
A federal judge in Seattle is questioning the U.S. government’s compliance with a court order to restart the refugee resettlement program.
-
¿Quienes son los habitantes del estado de Washington que corren peligro de ser deportados? Aquí 5 cosas a tener en cuenta
En su campaña presidecial, Donald Trump, se comprometió a deportar a millones de personas que se encuentran en Estados Unidos sin un estatus legal. Una vez asumido el mando, esta promesa no se dio a esperar.
-
Domestic workers could get guaranteed breaks, minimum wage under proposed Washington state bill
Domestic workers in Washington state don’t have guaranteed breaks or minimum pay — unless they’re in the city of Seattle. A bill currently before the Washington state Legislature would change that.
