Robert McClure
Co-founder, InvestigateWest
Robert McClure first used public records to reveal substandard housing conditions around the University of Florida and, as editor of The Independent Florida Alligator, successfully sued the university to open meetings of search committees to the public.
Over the next four decades, McClure made prolific use of public records laws in Washington, Florida and other states. He worked at United Press International in Miami before covering local government, slumlords, aviation safety, higher education and the environment at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. At the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, McClure was the backbone of five major investigations.
McClure then co-founded InvestigateWest, an award-winning Seattle-based nonprofit news agency focused on the environment, public health and government accountability. He served as executive director from 2011 to 2020 and executive editor until 2021.
McClure was the recipient of two prestigious Knight Foundation-funded fellowships that allowed him to undertake extensive studies at MIT, Harvard and the University of Michigan, and he was named by Seattle Magazine as one of Seattle’s “Most Influential People.”