Marla is a 1980 graduate of St. Joseph-Ogden High School where she was the Senior class President, Valedictorian and a 3 sport athlete playing Girls Basketball, Softball and Track.
She received her Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois and graduated with high honors. From there she completed her Master’s degree in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where she was inducted into the Kappa Tau Alpha national journalism honor society.
Marla has worked as the Brazil bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. She has been the business editor at the LA Times where she
was also a Mexico City correspondent. Currently, Marla is an enterprise editor with Reuters, a global news organization founded in
London.
She was the editor of a team awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for a series that exposed how easy it is
to buy the chemicals needed to manufacture the deadly drug Fentanyl and why authorities have failed to stop this trade.
Marla is grateful for the SJO teachers she had who set the bar high and expected the best from their students. She is also grateful for
classmates who have remained life long friends.
Marla currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Reed Johnson.
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