Here's a brief position description: Northwest Public Radio is looking for an individual with strong radio news production and reporting skills and a drive to produce network-quality news and feature reports. This person will work with the Northwest News Network (NNN) in gathering, writing, editing and producing radio news stories and feature reports for Northwest Public Radio and NNN stations.
I thought you'd enjoy reading the announcement below from Mary Hawkins, the program director at Northwest Public Radio and my new administrative supervisor. Northwest Public Radio in Pullman, Washington, is one of the stations that comprise Northwest News Network.
I'll be based in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Richland, Kennewick and Pasco are the three cities. Look on a map and you'll find them close to the southern, Oregon border, roughly in the center of Washington looking from west to east. Probably the biggest source of stories is the Hanford nuclear power plant, originally part of the Manhattan Project. It'll be interesting to shift cultures from a state where nobody wants the Yucca nuclear repository built (Yucca Mountain sits on a fault, and the science to bury the nation's nuclear waste there is built on a foundation at least as shaky as that fault) to a state where there's good reason to want Yucca built and taking in nuclear waste.
We have not yet set a date for me to begin, but we're aiming for January.
We're happy to announce the addition of a new reporter to the team of Northwest Public Radio and Northwest News Network. Carol Cizauskas comes to us from Reno where she has been working in print and radio journalism.
Carol is a graduate of Notre Dame and has done graduate work at the University of Nevada. She hosted All Things Considered at KUNR and began reporting regularly several years ago. As a reporter, Carol is largely self-taught but has managed to post more than 50 stories over NPR in the past year and a half. She has also been working on a Lewis and Clark expedition radio series, a series we will air in the new year here at Northwest Public Radio.
Carol will be working out of our Richland offices beginning in January, taking the seat vacated by Rachael McDonald. We trust she will maintain the high standards set by Rachael.
Best regards,
Mary Hawkins
Snow burying my town, unemployment setting me free, freelance and volunteer opportunities lighting my career – at less than two weeks old, 2005 is rushing at me like a champion speed skater.
You’ve probably heard about the West’s weather. You even may have heard my reports on NPR’s Tuesday newscasts – reports of snow so dangerous that the National Guard used Humvees to rescue drivers stranded just north of Reno and so deep that buildings collapsed under its weight. I always have rejoiced in seeing snow, but for the first time, whenever the sky grays over and clouds warn that flakes will fall, I grow scared. As much as fantastic snow accumulations bode the end of drought, we’re mostly tired and frightened of the storms.
My personal news should worry me more than the continuing snow, but getting laid off from KUNR set me on a brightly lit path. I realize the world lies before me – or the country, anyway – and I can reach for career opportunities anywhere I want. Best is knowing that the weight that was pulling me down finally has been released. I’m looking to continue my writing career, whether as an NPR reporter at headquarters or member station in another state, as staff for a statesman or organization I believe in, or as a western U.S. correspondent. If you know people I can contact or jobs I can apply for, please let me know.
The only grief I thought I faced when losing my position at KUNR was loss of respect in my community. As reporter and news anchor at Reno’s NPR station, my reputation preceded me. I had worked hard to deserve the respect given a journalist within a network known for its excellence, balance, and truth.
Upon leaving the KUNR job, I was sure I’d lose that status. But word spreads fast here, and in less than a week, more community leaders and national editors have asked me to work freelance or volunteer than I would have dreamed.
The opportunities include: stringing for NPR newscasts about Reno’s national news, hosting and producing an upcoming weekly local radio program about politics, reporting on a California church group’s experience in India just days following the tsunami disaster, writing about the arts for the Reno News & Review, and contributing to a new online magazine about the American West. That’s just since January 4th.
So, I’m speeding along right next to my champion
skater, my new year. I thought you would want to know
my news because you are someone I love or someone I
have to come to know and respect through my work.
Your prayers for a change from the old year, the old
life – and your help with everything new – are keeping
the ice for me and my skater smooth and cool.