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
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Seeking: Wolves marked for death in Washington state
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is trying to kill one to two of the nine wolves in the Grouse Flats pack, in the southeast corner of the state.
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Thousands gather in Seattle to demand government action on fossil fuels, climate change.
Thousands of activists walked out of school and work on Friday to gather at Cal Anderson Park and the Amazon Spheres and march to Seattle City Hall.
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'Dead tree after dead tree.' The case of Washington's dying foliage
When Jim and Judy Davis moved to their property in Granite Falls two and a half years ago, the trees in their 25-acre forest were healthy. Then the hemlocks started to turn brown.
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Proposed golf course near Rainier drives controversy
A decades-old plan to build a resort 11 miles from Mount Rainier’s Longmire entrance has resurfaced. The proposed resort would include a hotel, a conference center and a golf course.
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A baby clam garden by the sea: A Northwest delicacy returns
Native clams are harder to find these days along the Washington coast. To bring them back, the Swinomish Tribe of northwest Washington is reviving an ancient tradition: clam gardens. They’re rock walls designed to make good habitat for clams, and they might also help protect the tribe from climate change.
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King County has lost nearly $1M in federal funding for homeless services
King County has lost nearly a million dollars in federal funding for homelessness services. The funding came from a FEMA program.
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Four wolves killed by Washington state agents — hours before court hearing to protect them
The fate of the last wolf from that pack will be determined at trial.
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Wheat farmers fear extinction if Snake River dams are removed to help orcas
In the southeastern corner of Washington state, wheat goes down the river, while salmon are trucked up around dams on the road. “And taxpayers pay for all of it,” said Sam Mace, with Save Our Wild Salmon.
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Elk rebound in western Washington. Wolves may soon follow
Elk are making a comeback west of the Cascades. That’s exactly what wildlife officials were hoping for.
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Pesticide linked to brain damage in children faces multi-state lawsuit
Washington and five other states are suing the the Environmental Protection Agency to ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in fetuses and small children.