LUKE RUNYON
I’m running for the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists, to bring an enthusiastic, passionate and optimistic perspective to an organization I respect and value.
As a journalist with 10 years of professional experience, I hope to bring my skills to the SEJ board. My career has been formed by collaborative news enterprises, moving from one partnership to the next. I’ve seen the value in forging unique and cooperative partnerships firsthand, and I think the future of SEJ is in finding ways to continue building upon existing partnerships and forging new ones. Environmental journalism deserves the kind of diverse, engaging reporting that can only come from a collaborative process. I’ve been a part of successful projects, like Rocky Mountain Community Radio and Harvest Public Media, and have built my current project, covering water in the western U.S., from scratch.
I also hope to bring a slate of new ideas to SEJ during a challenging time. Like many other organizations, SEJ was forced to pivot this year to keep up with the pandemic. Journalism organizations can’t afford to maintain a status quo during unprecedented, society-changing events and I hope to influence how SEJ grows and shifts in coming challenges.
As a board member I will also commit myself to mentoring the next generation of environmental journalists. I’ve been fortunate enough to have earned support from other reporters and editors I respect, and hope to give back to the journalism community that has helped me shape my own career.
Thank you, and I hope to earn your support for the SEJ Board.
Biography
Luke Runyon reports on water in the West, with a focus on the Colorado River watershed, for NPR member station KUNC and a network of public media stations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada.
Before covering water at KUNC, Runyon was on the agriculture beat for five years with Harvest Public Media. He has also reported for Aspen Public Radio and Illinois Public Radio. His reports have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition.
Runyon holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting and a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of Illinois Springfield. His work has been recognized by SEJ, Radio Television Digital News Association and the Public Media Journalists Association.
He lives in Fort Collins, Colo. with Dylan, his partner of five years, and two backyard chickens, Peanut and Christine. When he’s not out reporting, you can usually find him wading in rivers in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter.
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