Lecturer to speak on Native Americans, media and health care reform

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: 907-474-7902
02/05/10

Native American journalist Mark Trahant will be in Fairbanks next week as a guest lecturer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Trahant will give a public presentation, "Native Americans, Media and Health Care Reform," Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium on the UAF campus. During his visit, Trahant will meet with UAF journalism classes and students.

Trahant is a 2009 Kaiser Media Fellow who is writing about health care reform through the lens of other government-operated health care programs like the Indian Health Service. His commentary on Native health issues has appeared in the Huffington Post and his embrace of new media extends to four-line news poems on Twitter. He also recently wrote a monograph on Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson, who is known for his work in the environmental and international arena, as well as American Indian policy.

Trahant is the former editorial page editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and has worked as a reporter, editor and columnist at the Seattle Times, Arizona Republic and other newspapers in the western United States. He has won numerous journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting. He is a former president of the Native American Journalists Association and is a trustee for The Freedom Forum, an Arlington-based foundation that promotes free press, free speech and free spirit.

Trahant’s visit is co-sponsored by the UAF journalism department and the College of Rural and Community Development.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Brian O’Donoghue, journalism department chairman, at 907-474-6247 or bpodonoghue@alaska.edu

MG/2-5-10/141ma-10