Kevin Vaughan is an Investigative Reporter with 9Wants to Know at 9NEWS in Denver, Colorado.
Kevin stumbled into journalism as a sophomore in high school because, well, it was the only class left when it was his turn to register.
But something clicked, and as a senior he was editor of the school’s paper. Then he headed off to Metropolitan State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and concluded that the news business was his calling.
His career took him around Colorado – to the Fort Morgan Times and the Fort Collins Coloradoan and eventually the Rocky Mountain News. He spent more than a decade at the Rocky, covering some of the state’s biggest stories, from the tragedy at Columbine High to the Colorado Rockies’ run to the World Series.
After the Rocky closed, Kevin moved to The Denver Post, where he worked with colleagues to expose irregularities in the enforcement of drunken driving laws in Colorado, highlight numerous problems at the state’s biggest dental school, and raise questions about a land deal that proved to be a financial windfall for an Adams County commissioner.
But while all those years in newspaper newsrooms were more fun than Kevin could imagine, he began to branch out into television, first at Rocky Mountain PBS and then at FOX Sports 1. He joined the fledgling network in August 2013 as an investigative reporter and spent most of the next two years living out of a suitcase, covering stories from the sexual assault allegations against Jameis Winston in Florida to the murder charges against Aaron Hernandez in Massachusetts to the strange saga of Donald Sterling and the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers in California.
Kevin has been honored for his work numerous times, and in 2008 he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for his Rocky Mountain News series “The Crossing,” which examined the lifelong implications of Colorado’s worst traffic accident, a 1961 collision of a high-speed passenger train and a school bus outside Greeley.
He is also the co-author, with Jim Davidson, of The Ledge: An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival, published by Ballantine Books. “The Ledge,” which recounts a mountain climbing accident that took one man’s life and left the other facing a nearly impossible fight to save himself, won the National Outdoor Book Award and is a New York Times bestseller.
As a 9Wants To Know reporter, Kevin focuses on in-depth, data-driven investigations, public corruption, and stories that expose breakdowns in the system that affect real people.
Away from work, he and his family spend as much time as possible in the high country, where he loves to camp, backpack and ski.
He’s also been known to root for the Denver Broncos.
kevin.vaughan@9news.com
303-871-1862
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