About
Hello! My name is Mallika, and I'm an education reporter based in Southern California. I currently report on K-12 and early education in Los Angeles for EdSource — where I have explored intersections of academics, school board policies, child welfare and social justice.
In addition to breaking, daily and enterprise coverage within my beat, I have reported on curriculum censorship and controversial transgender policies throughout southern California, was part of a statewide investigation on school policing, and contributed to reports on chronic absenteeism with the the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press. I have also been featured on our podcast, Education Beat, and have co-moderated panels about critical issues in education.
Before that, I interned at NPR’s All Things Considered and National Desk. At All Things Considered, I co-produced daily segments and episodes of the podcast, Consider This. I also assisted in the final stages of production for Ari Shapiro's "Climate, migration and the far-right" series. Over at the national desk, I published daily and long-form digital articles, covered national events in the field, and filed newscasts.
Before lending an ear to radio, I reported on higher education for the CalMatters College Beat. My work there ranged from investigating discrepancies in survivor support across the UC, CSU, and community college systems, to spending nearly a year profiling the experiences of pandemic graduates. My work for CalMatters has been published by outlets such as The San Francisco Chronicle, ABC, and CBS, and garnered recognition from the Los Angeles Times's Essential California newsletter, Politico's California Playbook, and both the New York Times Education Briefing and California Today newsletter.
I graduated with distinction from UC Berkeley with a double major in political science and global studies, as well as a minor from the Graduate School of Journalism. As an undergraduate, I helped with open-source investigations at UC Berkeley School of Law's Human Rights Center and spent all four years working for The Daily Californian, the city and university's newspaper of record. I eventually became the paper's managing editor — spending 60-80 hours weekly overseeing 100+ articles published each week across news, opinions, arts, sports, data visualizations, multimedia, and blogs.
Leading up to and during my time as managing editor, I served as the city news editor, sat on the opinion department's editorial board, and chaired the Diversity Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
To further my education, I am currently pursuing a MA in Specialized Journalism at the University of Southern California, where I am a Selden Ring Fellow for investigative journalism.