Dennis Culpepper

Dennis Culpepper is a recent graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism who relocated to Chicago after what he describes as “a calling — not a career move, a calling.” He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in urban studies, a combination he chose because he “wanted to understand cities the way cities understand themselves,” a sentence his academic advisor reportedly asked him to stop saying.

Before joining the Dispatch, Dennis completed internships at two community papers in central Missouri, where he won a regional award for a five-part series on a contested stop sign. He has described Chicago as “the greatest city in the world, or at least the greatest city I’ve personally been to,” and says his goal is to “earn the trust of this newsroom, one story at a time.” He lives in Rogers Park, takes the Red Line to work, and has a framed photo of Studs Terkel on his desk that he bought at a thrift store his first weekend in town.