Chiara Eisner

Hi there! I'm a multimedia investigative journalist currently based in South Carolina, reporting for The State about everything from education disparities and coastal companies skirting environmental protections to the toll of execution work. My original reporting on the stories of executioners was featured by Nieman Storyboard here. 

Previously, my reporting for WIRED revealed how a dietary health supplement company used regulatory loopholes to keep selling Prevegan to the elderly, a product the FDA knew was “hazardous” and causing serious side effect reports of seizures and strokes. My coverage led to ongoing efforts to close those food safety loopholes.

For The Marshall Project in Manhattan, using data from a national questionnaire that I designed and sent to 50 states, I exposed how life in prison and the consequences after release can be worse for people with intellectual disabilities.

As I covered science and technology for The Economist in London, I reported how disparities in healthcare treatment for people suffering from opioid addiction in Welsh and British prisons were linked to deaths — then covered how multi sensory architecture created for and by the blind and deaf was changing the field of design.

For The Guardian, The Intercept and NPR’s Radio Ambulante, I unraveled different sides to the story of how Honduras’s most prominent environmental activist was assassinated — demonstrating how the US was involved in the training of the man charged with helping organize the murder and how thousands of text messages implicated those at the top of the hydroelectric dam company the indigenous activist had been protesting.

I’ve also reported on Arctic animals and rogue methane leaks (for Scientific American), the 2019 Argentine presidential elections (in Spanish for Clarín), disparities in healthcare for doctors recovering from addiction in New England (for The Boston Globe) and more. I've won recognition for my work, including Honorable Mention for the 2021 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for the best young science journalist, The State's Journalist of the Year award, and South Carolina Press Association awards recognizing my investigative reporting, community-driven coverage and innovative articles. 

Before I was a reporter, I co-founded a global health nonprofit, worked for an architecture firm and taught English to adult immigrants in Boston. I completed a Bachelor's of Science in Public Health from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master's of Science in Investigative Reporting from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism / Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. I am Argentine-American and speak Spanish and Portuguese.

The State •

The death chamber doctor’s dilemma: A physician in South Carolina breaks his silence

Until the second he saw the warden escort James Terry Roach into South Carolina’s death chamber, the prison doctor’s job had been to keep the man alive. Dr. Green Neal has kept his execution experience secret for 37 years. But in March, the South Carolina Department of Corrections announced it was ready to start shooting the condemned to death with a firing squad — and that a doctor’s presence would again be required in the chamber. I spoke to Neal about his story. It is only the second time in recent history that a doctor involved in executions talks in detail about his execution role with the press.
The State •

Laws require language support for students. Many SC districts are ‘exploitative’ instead

Dozens of South Carolina school districts provide unequal educational opportunities to students because of where they’re from, Lucas Smolcic Larson and I showed, after collecting data from an unprecedented survey we sent to all S.C. districts and speaking to graduates. Many districts openly admitted to using bilingual students as translators instead of hiring professionals to interpret for children whose parents don’t speak English. That’s against the law. We worked with a local Spanish language outlet to publish this article in Spanish as well as English, in order to reach as many bilingual readers as possible.
The Guardian •

The US military trained him. Then he helped murder Berta Cáceres

My investigation for The Guardian revealed how a Honduran man who would later be convicted of helping murder environmental defender Berta Cáceres in 2016 was trained and shaped by West Point. The unprecedented look at West Point's little-known international training program raises questions about the schooling provided by the institution to generations of Central American soldiers for more than 200 years, some of whom later became involved with human rights abuses.
The State •

They executed people for the state of South Carolina. For some, it nearly destroyed them.

The repercussions of execution work for staff have often been left out of conversations about the death penalty, until now. Over five months, I spoke with 10 people who helped administer executions in South Carolina. The closer they and their families were to the act of killing, the more the men said their jobs caused long-term harm. This investigative feature story represents one of the most detailed, intimate portrayals of execution work in America ever published.
The State •

Here’s what South Carolina doesn’t want the public to know about firing squads and executions

My investigation showed for the first time that shortly before state lawmakers approved the firing squad in May, the SC Department of Corrections created confidentiality agreements to suppress information from over 100 employees they said were members of the execution team. Meanwhile, additional documents I revealed showed that the state spent $53,000 on firing squad preparations, but won't reveal the names of vendors or fully describe some items they bought. And they won't provide their execution protocols at all, though most other states consider that public information. The state's secrecy around executions violates state law, media attorneys agree. It could also be a human rights violation.
The State •

State reporter earns a top spot in national competition for science-related coverage

My investigative reporting for WIRED, Scientific American and The State earned second place in the 2021 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, a national competition for young science journalists. “Eisner’s investigation on the industrial exploitation of horseshoe crabs is a model of dogged reporting,” the Council for the Association of Science Writers wrote in the announcement of my Honorable Mention. “She won accolades for challenging a powerful company that other journalists have had trouble penetrating.”
WIRED •

Americans Took Prevagen for Years—as the FDA Questioned Its Safety

My investigation for WIRED showed that for years, officials at the FDA questioned the basis for the claims made by the company that manufactures Prevagen, a popular supplement for brain health. Multiple FDA inspections, most of which had not been reported before, found significant issues with the manufacturing processes, complaint handling, and the quality control testing that was supposed to ensure the products were safe. And thousands of Americans have reported experiencing “adverse events” while taking Prevagen, including seizures, strokes, heart arrhythmias, chest pain, and dizziness, my reporting exposed.
The Marshall Project •

When People with Intellectual Disabilities Are Punished, Parents Pay the Price

A sex offense conviction can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But when the convicted is someone with an intellectual disability, who can’t understand and comply with the rules and restrictions of their sentences, it falls on the guardians to suffer the financial, social and psychological burdens of the crimes. I reported the story for The Marshall Project, and shot the photography.
Ariane Mueller
The State •

Vaccine testing is changing. Why is this $13B lab still bleeding SC horseshoe crabs?

Horseshoe crabs are at least 445 million years old and grow larger in South Carolina than almost anywhere else in America. Since their blue blood can expertly detect a potentially deadly bacterial toxin, for decades, they’ve been bled to help develop safe vaccines. But the process that can harm the animals is no longer needed, some scientists say. And the company that still bleeds the animals in the state, Charles River Laboratories, has for years presented information to the public that experts say has been misleading and sometimes inaccurate, my investigation for The State Media Co. showed.
The State •

‘The refuge is closed’: Permits to be required for Cape Romain horseshoe crab harvest

For decades, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has allowed fishermen working for pharmaceutical companies to harvest horseshoe crabs from the beaches and salt marshes that make up South Carolina’s Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge without first conducting a review of how the harvest may be damaging wildlife, or requiring that fishermen apply for permits from the federal government. But after a lawsuit challenged the practice and my investigation revealed the company responsible knew some of its harvesting there was illegal for years, the federal agency announced it would close the refuge to commercial activity in August.
The State •

Of McMaster and marshes: Inside the $500K proposal to bleed protected SC horseshoe crabs

On Oct. 15, a lobbyist for the Massachusetts-based biomedical company worth more than $16 billion, Charles River Laboratories, sent an email to two directors of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. Attached to it was a confidential proposal that sought an unprecedented “biomedical research license” to allow fishermen access to previously restricted harvesting locations under the state’s jurisdiction. In exchange, the company would be willing to commit up to $500,000, the document revealed, though annual saltwater fishing licenses cost no more than $35. The information was obtained by The State through open records act requests and the proposal was reported here for the first time.
Scientific American •

Large Methane Leaks Reveal Long-Standing Shortfalls in Oversight

For years, oil and gas companies have been required to detect and repair methane leaks in their equipment. But scientists have produced dozens of studies over the past decade that suggest the current methods and technology used by industry to detect leaks—and by regulators to estimate how much methane is emitted—are inadequate to catch the actual scale of the problem, as my story for Scientific American shows.
The State •

Company accused of polluting ocean with plastic has an ally: SC ports

Never-before-seen documents I reported here for the first time revealed leadership at the Ports Authority had been helping shield a notable plastics company and its business supplier from scrutiny, despite internally noting that the company was responsible for plastic spilling into the harbor. And in emails exchanged in private, leaders of both organizations sometimes seemed to dismiss ecological concerns or public accountability, the investigation revealed.
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