Cat Murphy

Howard Fellow Cat Murphy is a graduate student, data nerd and longtime political news junkie from Naugatuck, Connecticut. She is a 2024 graduate of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, earning her bachelor’s degree in Journalism at age 20. At Quinnipiac, Murphy devoted herself to the college’s student-run newspaper, The Quinnipiac Chronicle. Serving as the paper’s news editor her senior year, she broke stories about everything from the college’s multimillion-dollar hedge fund accounts in the Cayman Islands to the questionable firing of the university’s head women’s lacrosse coach.

In summer 2024, Murphy interned at NBC Connecticut’s digital desk, helping to find local news stories, write breaking news briefs, publish televised news segments and curate the station’s digital content.

Murphy’s passion for journalism emerged at age 11 amid the 2016 election cycle, and she is excited to continue her journalism education in the Washington, D.C., area beginning in an election year. At the Howard Center, Murphy strives to further develop her data analysis, research and investigative capabilities. In the future, Murphy hopes to become an investigative reporter in Washington, as her ultimate goal as a journalist is to shine light on the issues public officials would rather remain in the shadows.

Outside of journalism, Murphy enjoys rifling through nonprofit tax returns, doomscrolling on X and starting but never finishing every project she thinks she’ll finally put her mind to this time.