Nancy Lavin wins A-Mark Prize for watchdog journalism

Rhode Island Current Senior Reporter Nancy Lavin was honored Friday with a 2026 A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism for her work exposing a gap in state law that prevented homebound seniors from receiving care needed to avoid severe health complications.

Lavin was awarded third prize in the annual competition administered by the New England Newspaper & Press Association during the regional journalism organization’s annual leadership summit at The Publick House Historic Inn in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The prize comes with a $2,000 cash award for Lavin and an additional $1,000 for Rhode Island Current.

Rhode Island Current was also named as a Distinguished Online News Publication for the New England region during the summit’s awards luncheon.

A-Mark prizes are funded by the A-Mark Foundation to honor excellence in watchdog reporting. Three prizes are awarded for the best journalism in each New England state. 

Lavin was covering a different hearing at the State House on March 27, 2025, when she saw dozens of caregivers, healthcare workers and podiatrists flowing into a first-floor hearing room. She learned they were there to testify on a bill that would allow certified nurses to provide basic foot care to homebound seniors and diabetics.

Lavin made a mental note to learn more about this compelling bill at a later time. But there were other priorities demanding her attention after the death of then-Senate President Dominick Ruggerio led the upper chamber to cancel a week of its session and sparked behind-the-scenes drama over a leadership transition.

The House of Representatives unanimously approved the foot care bill on June 12, but it failed to advance in the Rhode Island Senate. It ultimately died without even a hearing before the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. 

Lavin learned that Rhode Island was the only state in the nation that did not let nurses provide home foot care to manage toenail growth, corns, and detect foot ulcers. That left vulnerable patients unable to get the basic care they need to prevent minor issues from escalating into severe infections. They included a homebound veteran who took a jackknife to his neglected toenails and ended up in a “pool of blood,” according to the testimony of a home hospice nurse.

For her story published Aug. 13, 2025, Lavin interviewed the bill’s advocates and opponents, along with a foot care nurse whose practice was shut down by the state health department a year earlier, prompting the legislation in the first place. It captured the attention of lawmakers who previously paid little attention to this problem.

Nearly identical legislation was introduced in both chambers at the start of the 2026 legislative session. It was approved unanimously by both chambers and signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee on April 29 in an uncharacteristically early bill signing for the six-month legislative session. 

The new law immediately allowed the Rhode Island foot care nurse to restart her in-state practice and offered both a solution and dignity to patients and their families in desperate need of care. 

The first place A-Mark prize for New Hampshire went to Will Skipworth, a reporter at the New Hampshire Bulletin, for his three-part series, A System of Harm, which probed systemic rampant abuse and neglect within New Hampshire’s disability care system. Skipworth also received a Publick Occurrences Award for the same series at the awards luncheon.

Rhode Island Current and New Hampshire Bulletin are both part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest nonprofit state-focused news organization. 

Rhode Island A-Mark Prize prizes also went to the Providence Journal. Antonia Noori Farzan and Jonny Williams took first place for their reporting on hospital dumping, when nursing homes and assisted-living facilities refuse to accept back residents ready for discharge after hospitalization. Alex Kuffner won second place for his reporting on the contamination of well water in Glocester with PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” believed to be linked to a research facility where PFAS-containing firefighting foam was used for years by insurance giant FM.

The New Bedford Light was named Online News Site of the Year for New England. VT Digger was also named distinguished a finalist.