Dana Miller Ervin

WFAE Reporter

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.

Twitter:

@DanaMillerErvin

Email:

DErvin@wfae.org

Website:

https://www.wfae.org/people/dana-miller-ervin
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Hurricane Helene's Deadly Warning
How Hurricane Helene became an ominous warning about America’s lack of preparedness.
May 20, 2025
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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
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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 able to speak with him a few weeks ago.
August 1, 2023
Alretha Toombs
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 very differently.
July 18, 2023
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 days for a state psychiatric hospital bed.
May 9, 2023
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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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Life Sentence on the Installment Plan
WFAE examines the issue of inmates living with mental illness who cycle in and out of jail in North Carolina, serving what many in the court system call a “life sentence on the installment plan.”
April 25, 2023