Carissa Wolf, a lecturer in the sociology department, had her work featured on the front page of The Washington Post, Tuesday, Sept. 22. Wolf co-authored and reported, “Luxury cars, MAGA flags and Facebook invites: How an unknown Idaho family organized the Portland rally that turned deadly.”
The article examined the influence of a Meridian, Idaho, family in the campaign to re-elect President Donald J. Trump and illustrated “how little-known individuals with no recorded history of political engagement can seize an outsize role in the campaign.”
Wolf has produced solo, enterprise reports and contributed to team reports for The Washington Post since 2016 when her coverage of the Amon Bundy-led Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation made news around the world. Wolf’s coverage of the occupation was featured on the front page of The Post and reprinted in more than fifty newspapers across the nation.
Wolf has since covered issues affecting the west, religion, health care, culture and politics at The Washington Post.
Wolf’s reporting career included stints as a researcher for The Wall Street Journal, a public radio producer at Boise State Radio and a capital city beat reporter. She trained at Sonoma State University’s Project Censored Investigative Journalism Institute and earned her graduate and undergraduate degrees in communication, mass communication and sociology from Boise State University.
Wolf has won dozens of journalism awards for her enterprise reports including a Livingston Award nomination for her work at The Idaho Statesman, an Association of Alternative Newsmedia Award for Public Service Reporting and multiple Idaho Press Club honors.
Wolf’s past projects include multi-platform, database reporting; a four-hour interview conducted entirely on a whitewater raft and reports dispatched from a Blackhawk helicopter. Her current work and interests include magazine writing, long-form journalism, public sociology and social research on faith healing communities. Wolf has taught sociology, journalism and communication courses as an adjunct instructor and lecturer at Boise State University where she co-founded the Idaho Media Initiative.