Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning investigative reporter who uses data, in-depth research and interviews with community members, public officials and experts to spur change on a range of topics -- from disparities in climate impacts and criminal justice to learning loss in education. 

She is the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists/Chicago Headline Club award for Best Reporting on Climate Change in 2023; the national Sidney Award for outstanding investigative journalism; a Salute to Excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists; and the Restorative Narrative Award from Images and Voices of Hope.

Her career highlights include stories that helped abolish a controversial Illinois criminal law; prompted a legislative hearing on for-profit immigrant detention centers; ended exorbitant jail phone rates which prevented Shelby County, TN juvenile detainees from contacting their parents; increased workplace safety in the logistics industry during the early days of COVID-19; helped halt plans to build a crude pipeline atop a drinking water aquifer;  and prompted the regulation of an Arkansas company that violated the Clean Water Act.

Before becoming a journalist, Macaraeg worked as as communications strategist in Higher Ed and book publishing, generating two New York Times best sellers. She comes from a multi-generational family of Filipinx journalists.