Mc Nelly Torres is an award-winning investigative journalist, trainer and newsroom leader based in South Florida. At the Center for Public Integrity, Torres led an award-winning team producing investigative reporting with a focus on inequality. She fostered a collaborative and inclusive working environment that empowered staff in a remote newsroom to engage with each other and partner newsrooms. 

Torres developed successful partnerships with Univision, Futuro Media and NBC among other media outlets to distribute digital content in English and Spanish. She also managed the third season of award-winning narrative podcast, The Heist: Land of Broken Promises.

Awards for projects produced at Public Integrity include a national Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting for Toxic labor, a Gracie Award for Attacked Behind the Wheel, a national Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence that included Attacked Behind the Wheel and Harm’s Way in a collection of published work, and two SABEW awards for Toxic Labor and The Heist: Land of Broken Promises. Torres was also part of the team that produced 40 Acres and a Lie in collaboration with Reveal and Mother Jones.

Previously, Torres worked as an investigative producer for NBC6 in Miami. 

In 2010, Torres co-founded Florida Center for Investigative Reporting where she worked as a reporter, editor and associate director.  Torres has worked in five dailies across the nation. 

Her work in South Florida as a consumer writer for the Sun-Sentinel led to the conviction of a businessman with a history of defrauding customers, a state probe of a foreclosure-rescue firm and changes in state laws pertaining to foreclosure-rescue business.

She covered education for the San Antonio Express-News where her work contributed to the conviction of a school building architect.

In South Carolina, she garnered local and state awards for her investigative work on the state’s hog farm permit process. When she was a crime reporter for The Lawton Constitution, Torres completed a series of articles showing the sheriff department’s inability to solve homicides and the unmistakable similarities among several homicides in Comanche County, Okla. The Federal Bureau of Investigation began a probe into the deaths.

Torres was the first Latina to be elected to the boards of directors of the Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Florida Society of News Editors. She served on the national board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and is currently serving on the board of directors at the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. Torres has earned over a dozen awards throughout her career, including an Emmy for her work at NBC, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and several awards from organizations such as the NAHJ, the Education Writers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.

In 2022, Torres was recipient of the Gwen Ifill Award.

Torres has trained thousands of journalists in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean in data journalism and investigative tools.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Colorado State University-Pueblo, formerly known as the University of Southern Colorado. A native of Puerto Rico, Torres has lived around the world while following a military husband who retired in 2005.

Contact information:
e-mail: torres.mcnelly@gmail.com
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Twitter: WatchdogDiva