San Francisco Chronicle Earns Collier Spotlight Quarterly Certificate Award
The Spring Collier Spotlight award, a quarterly certificate recognizing groundbreaking reporting on state government institutions, is awarded to the San Francisco Chronicle and reporters Sara DiNatale, Megan Fan Munce and Susie Neilson for an investigation into how the property insurance industry inserted itself into the effort to reform compensation guidelines for homeowners impacted by wildfire and smoke damage.
The Chronicle story built on “Burned,” a multi-part investigation published in 2025 that penetrated the systems insurance companies use to underpay policyholders, revealing practices that leave survivors of disasters unable to rebuild or forced to live in dangerous, damaged homes.
In response to the investigation, the California Department of Insurance formed a 13-member committee to write guidelines, grounded in science, that could influence new state laws and insurance standards for testing and clearing smoke contamination.
The Chronicle dug into the background of the members of the committee, whose meetings were closed to the public, and disclosed that it didn’t have a single toxicologist or scientific expert in the changing chemistry of smoke from urban fires.
Instead, its five technical expert voices include three consultants who have spent years helping insurers dispute consumers’ smoke-damage claims and defending the companies when those policyholders sue.
Said one Collier juror: “The San Francisco Chronicle performed an enormously important public service in exposing industry influence on a state-appointed task force that was supposed to employ science-based guidelines for detoxifying thousands of smoke-damaged buildings….The reporters reviewed these consultants’ post-fire reports and showed that they were consistently recommending less cleanup than current science would recommend.’’
Congrats to the Chronicle and the reporting team:
Sara DiNatale covers politics and the impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on the Bay Area. She joined the Chronicle in 2025, after a decade reporting across the southern United States.
Megan Fan Munce is a reporter on the climate team covering California’s home insurance crisis. She writes about the California FAIR Plan; State Farm non-renewals; pullbacks by other insurers such as Allstate and Farmers; policy initiatives from the California Department of Insurance; and how homeowners in the Bay Area and elsewhere are navigating the challenges.
Susie Neilson is an investigative and data reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. Her work has prompted sweeping changes to laws and regulations, including a California-wide ban on a debunked lie detector technology used to interrogate prisoners. In 2025, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for a series she co-reported on deadly police chases. Her work has also been recognized with numerous other top journalism honors, including the Sidney, Hillman and IRE Awards, and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize.
Works considered for this quarterly Spotlight certificate were published between December 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026
About the Collier Prize:
The Collier Prize includes an annual journalism competition, a symposium devoted to promoting greater scrutiny of state government institutions, and a monthly newsletter highlighting great work and best practices. The Prize is awarded each year at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, and includes a $25,000 first prize, the largest award in the country for journalism focused on state institutions.
The Collier Prize for State Government Accountability is funded through an $8 million endowment from Gainesville businessman Nathan S. Collier, founder and chairman of The Collier Companies, to encourage investigative and political reporting focused on state institutions. Collier is a descendant of Peter Fenelon Collier, who in 1888 founded Collier’s, a weekly magazine focused on investigative journalism and publishing stories from renowned journalists such as Jack London, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and Samuel Hopkins Adams.
About the Collier Spotlight:
The Collier Spotlight recognizes standout accountability journalism work. Any U.S. news organization, regardless of platform, is eligible for Spotlight recognition, and anyone can make a nomination. There is no submission fee. To make a nomination, email story links and contact information to collierprize@jou.ufl.edu with a brief explanation of what makes the reporting special. If your news site is password protected, please include login information.
The next Spotlight certificate will be awarded for work completed between April 1 and June 30, 2026.The Spotlight is in addition to the annual Collier Prize for State Government Accountability. Spotlight honorees are not automatically entered for the $25,000 Collier prize, which requires a more detailed entry process and a $50 fee.
Category: Collier Prize News
Tagged: Collier Prize for State Government Accountability News Collier Spotlight Winners Rick Hirsch
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