Trevor Brown, an Oklahoma Watch investigative reporter whose 2020 work included an examination of Oklahoma hospitals suing patients over unpaid bills amid the pandemic and state politicians who promoted misinforma tion before the November elections, was named newspaper Writer of the Year in the Great Plains Journalism Awards contest.

The Great Plains Journalism Awards is a regional contest honoring print, web, TV and magazine journalists for outstanding stories, photography and design. The newspaper category is open to entries from organizations in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Winners were announced Thursday by the Tulsa Press Club.

Oklahoma Watch also won the Specialty Feature Award for the Coronavirus Storytelling Project, a collaboration with 24 state journalists on how the pandemic is impacting them and their fellow Oklahomans.

Brown, 35, has covered state and local politics for more than a decade. He spent five years as the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s statehouse reporter and previously worked for Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.’s chain of newspapers in Oklahoma, the Staunton News Leader and the Indianapolis Star as a Pulliam Fellow. Brown received bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Indiana University, where he also served as editor-in-chief of the award-winning Indiana Daily Student. He has been an investigative reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016.