KUNM News team wins national and regional awards

The KUNM News team has once again received multiple awards from multiple organizations for our work. These contests covered stories produced in 2023.

Reporters Alice Fordham and Nash Jones and student reporter Mia Casas were recognized by the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) during its annual conference at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Alice took second place in national news coverage for her story Fake 'sober homes' targeting Native Americans scam millions from taxpayers which documented how people were luring Native Americans into fake residential rehabs and defrauding Medicaid.

Nash took second place in Government and Democracy Features for their story Youth legislative session builds civic knowledge and confidence of NM high schoolers about a program of the National Hispanic Institute where young people took part in a mock legislative session at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.

And our student reporter Mia Casas took first place in Student Spot News for her story Actors' union takes its ongoing strike to Netflix North America’s studios in Albuquerque about the New Mexico SAG-AFTRA chapter joining the national protest last summer.

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, received eight awards from the Indigenous Journalists Association for the following stories in the student division

• Best Multimedia
  
  • • 2nd Place - Let's Talk more about missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives
    • Honorable Mention - Let’s talk about acequias

  • Radio/Podcast Best News Story

    • 2nd place - Federal commissioners come to Albuquerque to hear from families of missing and murdered Indigenous people
    • 3rd Place - Report shows Native Americans are still underrepresented in STEM
    • Honorable Mention - To’Hajiilee receives $90.4 million to build a community school away from flood plain

  • Radio/Podcast Best Feature Story

    • 2nd Place - Fifty years ago an activist took a radical step to highlight mistreatment of Native Americans
    • 3rd Place - Remembering activist who helped Native Americans gain voting rights in NM
    • Honorable Mention - Diné designer hosts fashion experience during Santa Fe Indian Market to support up-and-coming artists

  The news team also received recognition in regional and statewide contests.

Top of the Rockies - Society of Professional Journalists Region 9 (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming)

Jeanette DeDios

• Social Justice Reporting - 3rd Place - Missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives (3 stories)

  • Federal commissioners come to Albuquerque to hear from families of missing and murdered Indigenous people
  • A set of hearings about missing and murdered Indigenous people is about to wrap up
  • Let's Talk more about missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives

Alice Fordham

• Health News -1st  Place: Fake 'sober homes' targeting Native Americans scam millions from taxpayers
• Science and Technology Feature - 1st Place - Fossil footprints in New Mexico suggest humans have been here longer than we thought

• Public Service - Second Place: Wildfire Fallout (Two stories)

  • With local legal help, fire victims build cases for federal compensation
  • As U.S. Forest Service prescribes more fire, rangers work to convince skeptical New Mexicans
• Politics Feature - Third Place: Efforts to reform unpaid legislature down to the wire in last days of session

Nash Jones

• Health Feature: As NM funding for nicotine prevention falters, those most at risk lose out
• Legal News: New Mexico Redistricting Trial (multiple stories)
• Mental Health Feature: Let's Talk about NM's behavioral health care system, a decade after it fell apart
• Mental Health News: Santa Fe nonprofit brings yoga, meditation and mindfulness into NM women's prison
• Obit Reporting: 'Larger than life': Remembering Albuquerque Slam Poet Laureate Danny Solis

Kaveh Mowahed & Megan Kamerick

Podcast - 3rd Place - Let’s Talk New Mexico

• Let’s talk about modernizing our state legislature
• Let’s talk about why it’s hard to find a doctor
• Let’s talk about curtailing crime

Megan Myscofski

• Legal Feature - 2nd Place -  Advocates say Albuquerque is violating a court order on encampment removals

New Mexico Press Women Contest

Mia Casas

• Radio - On-the-Scene Report - 1st Place - Actors' union takes its ongoing strike to Netflix North America’s studios in Albuquerque

Jeanette DeDios

• Radio Prepared Report - First Place - Federal commissioners come to Albuquerque to hear from families of missing and murdered Indigenous people

Alice Fordham

• Radio Prepared Report - Honorable Mention - Fake 'sober homes' targeting Native Americans scam millions from taxpayers
• Radio On-the-Scene Report - Honorable Mention - As U.S. Forest Service prescribes more fire, rangers work to convince skeptical New Mexicans

Nash Jones

• Radio - On-the-Scene Report - 3rd Place - Youth legislative session builds civic knowledge and confidence of NM high schoolers

Megan Kamerick

• Radio Interview - 3rd Place - Author details nuclear colonization of New Mexico

Kaveh Mowahed

• Radio Talk Show - 1st Place - Let’s talk about curtailing crime