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Dana Miller Ervin

WFAE Reporter

WFAE

Dana Miller Ervin is the Holly and Paul Freestone Health Care Reporting fellow, examining the U.S. health care system.

Ervin is an award-winning journalist who has worked at “60 Minutes,” CNBC, “CBS This Morning” and “Nightline.” She has three Emmy Awards for investigative reporting and research, as well as a Peabody Award and an Alfred I. DuPont Award. Ervin has also served as a senior, nonpartisan investigator for the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, digging deep into big government programs.

Email: 

DErvin@wfae.org

Twitter: 

@DanaMillerErvin

Website: 

https://www.wfae.org/people/dana-miller-ervin

Stories from Dana Miller Ervin

A broken building and road destroyed by Hurricane Helene.
Documentary
Hurricane Helene’s Deadly Warning
How Hurricane Helene became an ominous warning about America’s lack of preparedness.
May 20, 2025
A person wearing an orange jumpsuit and hands in handcuffs is escorted by two law enforcement officials.
Documentary
Fractured
FRONTLINE, WFAE & Firelight Media investigate the long waits for mental health care that defendants who are deemed too sick to stand trial face in North Carolina.
March 5, 2024
A person wearing an orange jumpsuit and hands in handcuffs is escorted by two law enforcement officials.
Documentary
Fractured
FRONTLINE, WFAE & Firelight Media investigate the long waits for mental health care that defendants who are deemed too sick to stand trial face in North Carolina.
March 5, 2024
The back of John's head as he sits across the table from his stepfather, Eric Witherspoon.
Article
Still Here: Cycling Between the Jail and the Mental Health Hospital
WFAE's series began with the story of John, a 32-year-old man living with severe mental illness and intellectual disabilities. He was arrested more than five years ago, but he’s remained in custody and never had a trial. WFAE was finally…
August 1, 2023
Alretha Toombs sits on a bench in what looks like a courtroom behind a bailiff.
Article
Miami’s Model for Defendants With Severe Mental Illness
As WFAE has been reporting, locking up defendants with serious mental illness can make their mental health worse. It’s expensive, and it's often not very effective at reducing crime. In Miami, public officials have been managing defendants with mental illness…
July 18, 2023
Sheriff Garry McFadden.
Article
How North Carolina Hopes to Cut the Waits for State Psychiatric Hospital Beds
WFAE has been exploring the crisis brewing in North Carolina’s mental health system. That includes a shortage of state hospital beds. Now North Carolina is piloting a program it hopes will alleviate the crisis.
July 6, 2023
Alexander Gill.
Article
Kids, Trauma and Mental Health
The mental health system in North Carolina isn’t designed to treat traumatized kids before they predictably worsen. WFAE examines how kids have to get sick before they can get help.
June 20, 2023
When Criminal Justice Systems Have to Deal with Mental Illness
Article
When Criminal Justice Systems Have to Deal with Mental Illness
Mental health court data shows graduates of its program are less likely to re-offend. But what happens if one isn't eligible?
June 6, 2023
Chief Becky Cauthran looking at a screen with views of multiple rooms.
Article
How the Mental Health System Affects North Carolina’s Jails and the People That Work There
North Carolina's jails are on the frontlines of the mental health crisis. WFAE examines how jail staff have to tend to inmates with mental health issues and the toll that kind of work can take.
May 23, 2023
Three staff members stand in a hallway in Moses Cone Health ER.
Article
The Mental Health Crisis in North Carolina’s Emergency Rooms
The emergency room isn't supposed to be a place to live for days or weeks. But that’s what’s been happening for many North Carolinians in the midst of a mental health crisis, our Local Journalism Initiative partner WFAE reports.
May 16, 2023
How North Carolina Got the Math Wrong on Mental Health
Article
How North Carolina Got the Math Wrong on Mental Health
WFAE has been reporting on the struggles of inmates living with mental illness waiting for a state hospital bed. But it isn’t just inmates who wait. On average, North Carolinians who go to an emergency room in crisis, wait 16…
May 9, 2023
Inmates With Both Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders Cycle Through Jails Relentlessly
Article
Inmates With Both Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders Cycle Through Jails Relentlessly
WFAE examines ways to help former inmates living with mental illness stay out of jail and the ways the system in North Carolina fails to do that.
May 2, 2023

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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; Park Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Web Site Copyright ©1995-2025 WGBH Educational Foundation. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

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