Colorado

Daniel Schmidt

Daniel Schmidt covers local government accountability in Ouray County, Colorado, for the Ouray County Plaindealer. Prior to joining the Plaindealer, Schmidt was the community reporter at The Plainsman, Auburn University's award-winning student newspaper, where he covered local government, elections, breaking news, crime and community events. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Troy University and a bachelor's in journalism from Auburn University.

Jackie Sedley

Jackie Sedley covers all things environment and climate for KGNU in Boulder, CO. Before moving to Mountain Time, she lived in sunny California working as the Internal News Director for KCSB-FM in Santa Barbara. Her journalism career thus far has also included freelancing for the New York Times, fill-in producing and freelance reporting for KCRW and working as Editor-in-Chief for her community college newspaper. Sedley was introduced to journalism during her sophomore year of high school, when she joined her high school newspaper as a novice staff writer. After working her way up to News Editor and eventually Editor-in-Chief, she realized her thirst for reporting was truly unquenchable. Over the past 10 years Sedley has covered raging fires, housing crises, local elections, protests and more. Journalism is both the reason Jackie Sedley wakes up in the morning, and the reason she does not sleep enough at night.

Ouray County Plaindealer

The Ouray County Plaindealer is a weekly newspaper. It’s been operating since 1877, since miners and other settlers came to this mountainous area of Colorado to seek their fortunes and make a living. Today, the Plaindealer’s readership includes locals whose families have been in the area for just as long as the newspaper, as well as newcomers who have moved to Ouray County after retiring or to work in the tourism industry. One of the notable things about the Plaindealer’s circulation is we deliver to 41 states—and are discovering that many of these subscribers are part-time residents or folks who wish to move here someday. The Plaindealer is the paper of record for Ouray County, and it’s what people rely on to know what happened at city and town council meetings, who said what at the school board retreat, and what happened to that bear that was wandering around town breaking into people’s houses. The goal is to provide The Plaindealer’s publishers, a couple who bought the newspaper in April 2019, are longtime Colorado journalists who left the largest newspaper in the western half of the state to purchase the weekly and bring quality journalism to the publication. They believe that even small, rural places deserve good journalism.

KGNU

KGNU broadcasts a mix of local, state, national and world news, philosophical and cultural programs, and eclectic music. In order to achieve our mission to amplify underserved voices through the production of diverse programs, KGNU works through a participatory media lens, inviting and training others to join the mission. Four years ago we launched an equity reporting initiative and a broader media training program to prioritize local reporting in Boulder County. KGNU serves Boulder, Denver and much of the northern Front Range of Colorado.

Emily Capetillo

Emily Capetillo covers housing challenges in Denver, Colorado for KOA radio, a news, talk and sports station. A first-generation college graduate, she recently earned her degree at the University of North Texas. As a podcast intern at KERA, the NPR affiliate based in Dallas and serving North Texas, Capetillo wrote and narrated for “Consider This.” She is a native of South Texas, and got her start in journalism in college when she covered local news in Denton, Texas, including stories about affordable housing, decriminalization of marijuana, nonprofits and COVID-19. In her spare time, Capetillo enjoys cooking, taking care of her plants and journaling.

Jesse Bedayn

Jesse Bedayn reports on Colorado’s Statehouse with a focus on housing for The Associated Press. A second-year corps member, he previously covered California’s wealth inequality for The Mercury News and CalMatters, connecting policy decisions to the voices of those impacted on the ground. An investigation by Bedayn exposed how low-income seniors become stranded in nursing homes and how their pleas for help go unanswered. That investigation was carried over from his work at the Investigative Reporting Program and as a stringer for The New York Times. He holds a master’s degree in narrative writing and investigative reporting from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Kent in England. Having grown up in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, Bedayn can be found bumming around the wild or woodworking.

Kylea Henseler

Kylea Henseler covers county government for the Ouray County Plaindealer in Ouray, Colorado. Before this, she reported on Miami Beach city government for Miami Today, and pitched in on feature stories about education, health, transportation and the environment. A graduate of the University of Miami, she was the executive editor of Distraction, a student-run lifestyle magazine, and contributed photos and reporting on a variety of topics, including the struggles of new teachers, the lineage of local drag families and volunteers who turned a Miami dump into a mountain bike park. In her downtime, Henseler enjoys training jujitsu and biking.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press is a global news agency that began 172 years ago as a cooperative of five New York City newspapers. With 263 locations in more than 100 countries, AP provides journalism to roughly 15,000 media outlets around the world. AP sets standards for ethics and excellence, and has won 52 Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 gold medal for Public Service for an investigation into labor abuses in the seafood industry, reports that freed more than 2,000 slaves. AP’s seven news bureaus in the northeast U.S. provide vital local and regional news to 378 newsrooms.

KOA Radio

KOA Radio, FM and AM, is a news, talk and sports station in Denver and along with the iHeartRadio app, this news organization prides itself on being Colorado's information station—Colorado's Morning News is its best-rated show. The mission is to be fair, fast and dependable when delivering news to the listening area, and its work has won Murrow and Marconi awards.

Ouray County Plaindealer

The Ouray County Plaindealer publishes a weekly paper and its news site and e-newsletter also provide vital, reliable information to this rural part of Colorado. Maintaining high standards for accuracy and fairness, its goal is to contribute to a vibrant, informed community by serving a narrow niche—primarily covering news in a county of 5,000. The publishers were recognized with the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists’ Keeper of the Flame Award in 2021 for their tenacious advocacy for the public’s right to know and hold government accountable.