Alia Pharr covers taxation and infrastructure in metro Atlanta. Before joining The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she worked at daily newspapers in Texas and Connecticut and served in the Peace Corps in El Salvador. Her work has received awards from the Society for Feature Journalists and Best of the West. A native of Prince George's County, Maryland, she holds a bachelor’s degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she also minored in Spanish. She speaks and writes fluently in Spanish.