The KUNM news team has picked up a bundle of national and regional awards for work done in 2024.
Reporters Jeanette DeDios, Kaveh Mowahed, and News Director Megan Kamerick were recognized by the Public Media Journalists Association during its annual conference in Kansas City, Mo.
Jeanette took second place for a student news feature for her story Native American voters weigh in on this election, which featured the voices of Native voters at a Trump rally just before the election.
Kaveh took second place in the news/public affairs category for a Let’s Talk New Mexico show focused on public safety and ideas for reform after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s attempt to address crime in a special session fizzled.
And Megan, working with Kaveh, took first place for audience engagement for last year’s effort to connect people during the wildfires in Ruidoso with loved ones searching for them, and also work with Source New Mexico to report their stories.
Jeanette DeDios, who came to us through the New Mexico Local News Fund Fellows program and is now a graduate student and a full-time employee with KUNM, swept the student division radio/podcast awards at the Indigenous Journalists Association.
- Best News Story
- Best Feature Story
Excellence in Beat Reporting
- First Place - Coverage on New Mexico’s Radiation Exposure
- Second Place - Coverage on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in NM
The news team also got four awards in the Top of the Rockies – Society of Professional Journalists Region 9 (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah) in the medium-sized newsroom category
Jeanette DeDios
- Beat Reporting - First Place
Nash Jones
- Politics News – Second Place
- Mental Health Feature – Second Place
Taylor Velazquez
- Politics Feature – Second Place
Bryce Dix
- Climate Reporting – Third Place