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Lane DeGregory - Enterprise Reporter/Hope and Humanity
Lane DeGregory

Enterprise Reporter/Hope and Humanity

As an enterprise writer, I seek stories about people in the shadows. Some put a face on news events and current issues. Others shine a light on people’s private struggles and triumphs. Many are narratives, focusing on helpers and hope. I grew up in Washington, D.C. during the Watergate era and decided I wanted to be a journalist when I was six years old. I have worked at newspapers across the East Coast and have written for the Times for more than 20 years. In 2009, I won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for a story about a feral child. I teach around the world and host WriteLane, a podcast about non-fiction storytelling. In 2023, the University of Chicago Press published an annotated anthology of my Times stories: “The Girl in the Window” and Other True Tales. I’m married to my college crush, a drummer, and we raised our two sons in the tiny waterfront town of Gulfport. When I’m not talking to strangers, I enjoy camping at music festivals, going to the beach at sunset and playing with our two energetic puppies. I’d love to hear your story, or someone’s you think I should share.

  1. Stanley, a very good boy, saves other dogs’ lives as a blood donor
    Dec. 29, 2024• Community News
    Stanley, an American Pit Bull, perks up his ears for a treat after he finishes donating blood at BluePearl Pet Hospital on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Clearwater.
  2. For kids of foster care ‘house parents,’ there’s no place like home for the holidays
    Dec. 25, 2024• Community News
    Norm Cookson helps nine-year-old Lexi place an ornament onto a Christmas tree at A Kid's Place group foster home on Wednesday, Dec 11, 2024, in Brandon.
  3. Nearly a year into the housing experiment, residents feel transformed
    Dec. 19, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Amanda Moral, in center, in background, raises her hands to the sky as she harmonizes with fellow residents as they sing songs of praise and worship during a Thanksgiving celebration at the Innovare apartments in downtown St. Petersburg on Nov. 25. On left is Walter Sloan, and on right is Kalin Stokes.
  5. At the housing experiment, tension grows between formerly homeless and ‘regulars’
    Nov. 14, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Marie Morey, lead property specialist, left, shows Laquida Carter and her friend George Weeks the view from the living room window as Laquida becomes a new resident on the affordable housing side at the Innovare apartments on Oct. 1 in St. Petersburg. Laquida, who is moving from Lakeland, has been on the waiting list for Innovare for over nine months.
  6. Post-hurricanes, Pinellas voters amass at defunct polling places
    Nov. 5, 2024• Elections
    The line going around the building as people wait to vote on Election Day at Boyd Hill Hammock Hall, 3010 31 St. S, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in St. Petersburg. Boyd Hill served as a relocation polling location. Damage from the hurricanes on the barrier islands and low-lying areas was so extensive that the county has relocated 25 polling places on election day.
  7. After hurricanes, a Gulfport counselor gathers a group to process traumas
    Oct. 31, 2024• Hurricane
    Gulfport's first hurricane trauma support group met in a little building between the dog parks. Ten people came to Monday's session to talk about trauma they had experienced during the storms.
  8. After one disaster, a small-town mayor braces for another in Hurricane Milton
    Oct. 9, 2024• Hurricane
    Sam Henderson, 53, has served as Gulport's mayor for more than 12 years. When he saw what Hurricane Helene had done to his waterfront town, he felt sick. Since then, he has barely slept. This week he's been preparing for another storm as Hurricane Milton spins toward the town's shores.
  9. From a homeless shelter to college, a Florida teen makes a new start
    Sept. 30, 2024• Narratives
    Malesa Chance, the house staff supervisor, left, gives Kenneisah Cummings, 18, a big goodbye hug after packing her mentor's car. Cummings' mentor, Kimberley McDaniel, right, was driving her to her new dorm at Florida SouthWestern State College.
  10. Gulfport, like so many Tampa Bay communities, picks up Helene’s pieces
    Sept. 28, 2024• Hurricane
    The Tiki Bar & Grill looked over Shore Boulevard S., across from Gulfport’s beach volleyball courts. It featured daily seafood specials, live music and hosted a popular open mic night. It was one of dozens of Gulfport businesses destroyed by Hurricane Helene, which caused the worst damage the little waterfront town has seen in more than a century.
  11. Hurricane Helene wasn’t a direct hit in Tampa Bay but it sure felt like it
    Sept. 28, 2024• Hurricane
    An airboat transports residents rescued from floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene early Friday morning in Crystal River.
  12. Residents of Pinellas Hope tent city evacuate before Helene
    Sept. 26, 2024• Hurricane
    Pinellas Hope resident Delores Willoughby and her dog, Tank, are among the first to board a bus that will take residents to local hurricane shelters ahead of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Clearwater. Approximately 400 residents were bused to two shelters in the area.
  13. Swamped a year ago, Pinellas coastal residents brace for Helene
    Sept. 25, 2024• Hurricane
    Mellow the dog is pictured in the living room of her owner, Shawna Bloesinger, who piled up all the furniture off the floor in preparation for flooding, in the Shore Acres neighborhood, prone to extreme flooding and located in a mandatory evacuation zone, in anticipation of storm surge due to Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024 in St. Petersburg.
  14. Tragedy struck for Catholic newlyweds. Months later, a miracle?
    Sept. 19, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Nathaniel and Mariana Kuhlman met at Franciscan University in Ohio, where they went to Mass together every day. Last October, they got married at St. Mary, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in St. Petersburg. "He made me feel like he was really seeing all of me," she said.
  15. Police say woman was drunk when she crashed into a motorcycle
    Sept. 8, 2024• News
    A woman was arrested after she crashed her car into a motorcycle, killing the driver. The woman was allegedly drunk.
  16. Six months into St. Pete’s housing experiment, enforcing rules and measuring success
    Aug. 15, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Janet Stringfellow, CEO of Volunteers of America of Florida, talks with Innovare apartments resident Nicole Lines, left, as Lines tells her about an upcoming job interview on July 31 in St. Petersburg. Stringfellow was giving a tour of the facility to a group from Corinne’s Food Pantry, who are planning on starting a pantry at Innovare.
  17. Some thrive, some struggle as formerly homeless residents adapt to St. Pete apartments
    July 3, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Jojo, 8, loves the view from his new bedroom at the housing experiment. He and his mom, Kalin Stokes, 40, had spent the last year sleeping in her SUV. After five months in their new apartment, Kalin had set up an altar to her other two sons while Jojo built cardboard tracks to race Matchbox cars. Like other residents in the 50-unit complex, they were finding new routines and next steps.
  18. Formerly homeless St. Pete residents mark milestones in housing experiment
    May 29, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Janet Stringfellow, CEO of Volunteers of America of Florida, celebrates with Walter Sloan before the monthly residents' meeting at Innovare apartments. Walter had been homeless for more than six years. In February, he moved into one of 25 downtown units rented to people who were living in shelters and on the streets. Here, he tells Janet about what he hopes to do next.
  19. Man charged with murder after police say he sold deadly drugs
    May 25, 2024• News
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  20. Bear caught on video in Oldsmar, Tampa: Could it be the same animal?
    May 25, 2024• News
    A still from a video shows the bear walking across a driveway in Oldsmar.
  21. A St. Petersburg housing experiment is 2 months old. Here’s how it’s going.
    May 9, 2024• St. Petersburg
    Amanda Moral, center, and her mom, Virginia, had lived in their car, then a shelter, for more than a year. In February, they moved into one of the 25 new apartments in downtown St. Petersburg that were given to homeless people. Amanda wants to go back to college "And get a job working from home," she said. "Now that I have a home."
  22. In St. Petersburg, homeless people get an apartment, support – and a fresh start
    April 24, 2024• St. Petersburg
    As the Supreme Court wrestles with whether people should be arresting for sleeping outside, and Florida considers setting up more tent cities, a new project in downtown St. Petersburg opened, offering 25 new apartments to homeless people to help them start over.
  23. At a Florida psychiatric home of last resort, one woman works her “dream job”
    April 3, 2024• Health
    Barbara Lee checks in with residents on the smoking porch at Balanced Healthcare nursing home in St. Petersburg. She has worked at Florida's only all-psychiatric nursing home for 42 years, first as a housekeeper, now as activities director. She insists it's her "dream job."
  24. Florida divers go deep with sonar to find sunken cars, solve cold-case mysteries
    March 26, 2024• Crime
    John Martin of Lakeland, left, and his brother Mike Sullivan of Gulfport suit up for a dive with their Sunshine State Sonar Search Team while investigating a submerged vehicle in the Hillsborough River at the 40th Street Bridge. Over the last two years, the divers have found 11 missing people in Florida waterways.