The Better Government Association has hired veteran Chicago journalist Alex Nitkin as its newest member to its newsroom team.

Alex Nitkin will work as a solutions-focused reporter as part of the Illinois Solutions Partnership, an ambitious new collaboration funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation to address the state’s urgent challenges through investigative reporting and solutions journalism.

In addition to becoming the BGA’s first reporter devoted solely to finding solutions to the thorniest issues impacting Illinois residents, he will also publish a weekly newsletter with original reporting on the most impactful and overlooked stories unfolding in local government.

Nitkin, 29, comes to the BGA from The Daily Line, where he works as a reporter-editor covering the Chicago City Council and Cook County government. He previously worked at The Real Deal Chicago, where he covered local real estate news, and DNAinfo Chicago, where he worked as a breaking news reporter and then as a neighborhood reporter covering the city’s Northwest Side. 

A New York City native who grew up in Connecticut, Alex graduated Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a bachelor’s degree. He lived in Maturin, Venezuela as an exchange student for one year from 2010-11 and studied the Arabic language in Amman, Jordan for a semester in 2013.

Alex lives in Uptown and spends his free time hiking, camping and catching up on “Survivor” reruns.

He will start Aug. 15.