Impactful Women of the 918: Ziva Branstetter

Ziva Branstetter recently left her job as senior editor at ProPublica, a national nonprofit newsroom focused on investigative and enterprise journalism. While there, she helped manage, edit and write “Life of the Mother,” an investigation into the deaths of five women who were unable to access timely reproductive care in Georgia and Texas after the states banned abortion. The piece was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in May.

“Our project changed the national conversation from ‘Can abortion bans lead to deaths?’ to showing how experts agree that this has happened in five cases,” Branstetter says. “Our project showed how these laws can be modified to ensure pregnant women receive the healthcare they need to live. I am hopeful that states, including Oklahoma, will use our project as a blueprint to respond to preventable maternal deaths, as occurred in Texas.”

Branstetter credits her first job as an editor and reporter at the Tulsa Tribune for providing a foundation for her expansive career, including being an editor at The Washington Post and Reveal, two decades with the Tulsa World, and co-founding The Frontier, an investigative newsroom based in Tulsa.

For three decades, Branstetter’s investigations have exposed issues such as Oklahoma’s death penalty process, corruption within the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, and how energy companies were causing earthquakes that damaged homes and property.

In leaving her ProPublica role, Branstetter is focusing on building a company to coach and train employees at for-profit and non-profit companies in writing and related skill sets.

“I also mentor journalists, mostly journalists of color, in career strategy,” she says. “I volunteer with Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc., which provides education and training to journalists around the world.”

A lover of the 918, Branstetter and her husband of 37 years enjoy the parks, cycling and jogging paths, museums, and concerts at Cain’s. She proudly displays a 918 tattoo on her wrist.

A true investigative journalist, Branstetter is also aware of areas that Tulsa could improve, pointing out that city leaders could provide more opportunities for people in different parts of the city to interact. She also believes Tulsa must recognize and deal with “its painful past from the Tulsa Race Massacre.”

Finally, if you’re wondering where Ziva got her unusual name, she picked it out when she was 5 years old. Until she was in kindergarten, her name was Lisa, but there were four other Lisas in her class. Determined not to be Lisa #5, Branstetter’s parents let her pick out a name from a book of names, and it was officially changed at the courthouse.