As part of New Mexico In Depth’s goal of nurturing a culture of ambitious journalism and tackling complex issues, we are exploring issues crucial to our state’s Native communities and people. Learn more about the team working on this project:
Laura Paskus
Laura Paskus
Laura Paskus is an independent writer, editor and radio reporter. She has worked as managing editor of Tribal College Journal, a publication of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and assistant editor of High Country News. Laura is currently a stringer for KUNM 89.9-FM. She also freelances for several regional and national media outlets.
In 2013, Laura is serving as president of the Society of Professional Journalists Rio Grande Chapter board of directors. She also enjoys working with young people who are hungry to tell the stories of their own communities, and loves building relationships with students, schools and teachers.
You can reach Laura at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @LauraPaskus.
Bryant Furlow
Bryant Furlow
An Albuquerque-based medical journalist, Bryant Furlow covered the state’s 2010 Medicaid consultations with tribal governments. His reporting has also included investigative series on lax state regulation of the health insurance industry, drinking water quality, rural ambulance response times following EMS budget cuts, and the off-label sedation of jail inmates with prescription psychiatric drugs — a practice that led to a regional street trade, overdoses and deaths in northern N.M.
He serves on the board of directors for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and helps mentor student reporters at the Corrales International School.
You can reach Bryant at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @BryantFurlow.
Andi Murphy
Andi Murphy
Andi Murphy is a Navajo from Crownpoint, N.M., a small town on the Navajo Nation reservation. She has been a writer since she learned how to use a pencil. She evolved into a journalist, from a creative writer, during her first year in college when she joined the American Indian Journalism Institute and the Native American Journalists Association. Through AIJI, she has held internships in Farmington, Montana and North Dakota. She is a graduate of New Mexico State University and is currently a features writer for the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Andi enjoys cooking and eating new foods. Her favorite foods are Middle Eastern, Mexican and hamburgers. She spends her weekends in the kitchen and in the movie theaters. She also enjoys playing volleyball with her sister and listening to music really loud in her car. Follow her on Twitter @andimurphy and check out her blogs – Andi Murphy: Native View and Toasted Sister: Andi’s Guide to Eating Well.
Julie Ann Grimm
Julie Ann Grimm
Julie Ann Grimm is the editor of the Santa Fe Reporter, a recent change from covering daily news at The Santa Fe New Mexican for the last decade. She believes that informed citizens are the bedrock of democracy and that community journalism is alive and well.
Julie Ann moved to New Mexico in 2001 after graduating from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is proud to call New Mexico home. She began her career her at the Albuquerque Bureau of the Associated Press, and her work has appeared in publications as diverse as Los Angeles Times and EasyRider magazine. Some of her favorite recent stories were about goats, trains and apples. Her investigative journalism and features have won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, AP Managing Editors, New Mexico Press Association and Federation of Press Women.
For the last three years, Julie Ann has helped sixth graders at Salazar Elementary School produce their school newspaper. She loves the outdoors, sings in her church choir, and reads voraciously. She’s a huge fan of public transportation and the Santa Fe Fuego. Follow her on Twitter @Julieanngrimm. Email her at [email protected].
Trip Jennings
Trip Jennings
Trip Jennings, NMID’s executive director, is a life-long scribbler, which is the word one of his photographer buddies uses to describe newspaper reporters. His friend did not mean scribbler as a compliment. Trip co-opted it because he liked the sound of it.
Trip started his career in Georgia at his hometown newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle. But heeding the call of wanderlust, Trip left home, eventually working in California, Florida and Connecticut where he reported on many interesting stories, including the resignation and incarceration of Connecticut’s then-governor, John Rowland, and gang warfare in California. For the last seven years, Trip has covered politics and state government for the Albuquerque Journal, The New Mexico Independent and the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Trip likes to hang with his family, read widely, listen to copious amounts of music and engage in wide-ranging, preferably philosophical, conversations. Little known facts about Trip include that he earned a Master’s of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., and, in the early 1980s, he used to break-dance. Don’t ask him to show off any moves, though. His glory days are long past.
Heath Haussamen
Heath Haussamen
Heath Haussamen, NMID’s deputy director, is an award-winning journalist who ran the nationally recognized political news website NMPolitics.net for almost seven years before helping start New Mexico In Depth. He has also worked at the Las Cruces Sun-News, Santa Fe New Mexican and New Mexico Independent. He’s a native New Mexican who grew up in Santa Fe and now lives in Las Cruces, and is a 2003 graduate of New Mexico State University.
Heath loves to spend time with his family and in nature and has many interests, including religion, politics and philosophy. He’s a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy books, movies and TV shows. He loves to learn, explore and find common ground with others. You can follow him on Twitter @haussamen, find him on Facebook by clicking here, or e-mail him at [email protected]. You can visit his homepage here.
Media partners
Media partners working with NMID on this project include: