We are thrilled to announce that Alejandro Serrano, an education reporter at the Houston Chronicle, is joining The Texas Tribune as a general assignment reporter on our breaking news team.

Alejandro has built an impressive body of work in his two years at the Chronicle. He was part of an ambitious project, published this month, that documented the book controversies and book removals occurring in school districts across Texas and the country. The Chronicle described the book bans as part of “an escalating, national assault — mostly led by politicians, elected officials and conservative activists — on literature that explores race, LGBTQ+ issues and sexuality.”

Alejandro is a versatile journalist who’s helped cover major news events, including the Astroworld Festival tragedy, Hurricane Nicholas, and the deaths of hundreds of Texans during the February 2021 winter storm and the nearly statewide blackout that ensued. His article on a Sugar Land woman who lost her three kids and her mother in a fire during the freeze was a portrait of unimaginable grief. His story on the death of a young man in the Harris County Jail offered equal measures of humanity and accountability.

A native of Long Island, New York, Alejandro graduated from Northeastern University in 2019 with a degree in journalism. While in college, Alejandro reported and wrote for The Boston Globe and was an intern at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. After college, he was a metro intern at the Chicago Tribune and then began a Hearst Journalism Fellowship, covering breaking news for the San Francisco Chronicle for a year. He spent the second year of the fellowship as a general assignment reporter at the Houston Chronicle before joining its staff.

Alejandro starts with us on Sept. 26 and will remain based in Houston. He will report to news editor Brandon Formby and work alongside our two other general assignment reporters, Sneha Dey and William Melhado.