Author Archives: Kevin Fitzgerald
Kevin Fitzgerald is the staff writer for the Coachella Valley Independent. He started as a freelance writer for the Independent in June 2013, after he and his wife Linda moved from Los Angeles to Palm Desert. His career has included stints as a magazine journalist and photographer, and as a TV-network marketing executive, working in publicity and advertising photography for HBO, FOX and NBC. As an entrepreneur, Kevin launched successful digital image production and distribution businesses. With the Independent, Kevin covers a variety of news, cultural, entertainment and sports stories as both a reporter and a photographer. He won two first-place awards in the 2021 California Journalism Awards for his work with the Independent—one in the enterprise news category for a piece about the emergence of the lithium extraction industry in the Coachella Valley, and another in the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic category for a piece about wastewater testing by local water agencies. In 2018, he was honored by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia with a third-place award in the Beat Reporting category for his coverage of end-of-life laws and issues.