After an exhaustive search for our new staff writer, we found the perfect fit in Natalie Delgadillo. Her expressive writing, tenacious investigative skills, and nose for news have already impressed us deeply.

Natalie joins us from Governing Magazine, where she served as a reporter and web producer, covering a whole gamut of state and local issues. Before that, she wrote for CityLab and helped launch (!) CityLab Latino, penning stories in both English and Spanish.

I’ve found that her work has a lyrical quality to it (see her essay “On Being A Latina A Long Way From Home”) that makes it a pleasure to read. And she has the reporting chops to match (check out her very first story for us, about a prime plot of undeveloped land in Hill East and the frustrated neighbors who live nearby).

As a displaced Angeleno who never learned to drive, Natalie is a devoted and joyful pedestrian. If she can walk to where she wants to get, she will, regardless of what the D.C. summer has in store. She tries to live her life unpretentiously, which mostly means she watches a lot of reality television and drinks shitty beer very happily. Catch her wandering around Capitol Hill on Saturdays when she wakes up late and looks for new places to grab coffee.

Be sure to follow her on Twitter. You’re going to want to see what she gets up to.