Chris Quintana

I’m a reporter on USA TODAY’s investigations team who writes accountability stories about higher education. I often also assist with national breaking news.

Most recently, I wrote about how Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth and connections to help the children of the rich and famous attend expensive private schools.

I also helped lead a project about predatory football academies that sell young men on the dream of college football, but often endanger their athletes and fail to deliver on their promises. 

I am frequently part of news teams covering national tragedies including the flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas and the 2025 plane crash near Washington, D.C. 

Prior to joining the investigations team, I was on USA TODAY’s education team, where I wrote about student loan borrowers’ efforts to pay their debts. I also uncovered a college with no evident students or faculty—but that still received an accreditor’s stamp of approval. 

I previously worked at the Chronicle of Higher Education where I revealed a student loan expert quoted by mainstream media outlets was actually a fictitious creation of a student loan refinancing company. 

I also covered my alma mater, the University of New Mexico, at the Albuquerque Journal and served as a general assignment and education reporter at the Santa Fe New Mexican. You can reach me at [email protected] or via Signal at 202-308-9021.