A Pennsylvania native, Amanda Fries began her journalism career in upstate New York, covering environment, agriculture, and local government for the Utica Observer-Dispatch and later state government and the Capitol for the Albany Times-Union. Fries joined the Delaware News-Journal in 2021, producing award-winning investigative coverage of botched school drinking water testing for lead. Her reporting prompted a statewide retesting of school drinking water sources and, for the first time, state funding for childhood lead poisoning prevention.

After 14 years covering communities in other states, Fries is thrilled to return home and hold government officials accountable in her own community. She’s excited to provide much-needed coverage in a county filled with generations of family members and friends.

Fries earned her bachelor’s degree at Temple University in 2010 and lives just over the Berks border with her husband and two dogs.