School of Communication honors green graduate on Earth Day

student Jenna

Jennifer (Jenna) McKnight, a 2000 Summa Cum Laude graduate of NAU with a journalism degree with an emphasis in environmental communication, will be honored during the School of Communication’s 2009 Associated Press/Robert R. Eunson Award Ceremony beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, in room 119 of the School of Communication.

McKnight is the founder of NAU’s student organization the Society of Environmental Communicators. She received a graduate degree from the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Her career in journalism includes various reporting and editing positions for newspapers in New Jersey, New York, and Indiana, where her sometimes controversial stories garnered her numerous awards, including a first-place award for environmental reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

McKnight currently works in New York City as the news editor of Architectural Record. She formerly was the web editor of Architectural Record and GreenSource magazines.

Bettina Boxall, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, will be keynote speaker during the event. Known for covering tough environmental issues, Boxall will discuss “Environmental Reporting in the Age of Spin and 24/7 News.”

Michelle Williams, Associated Press Arizona-New Mexico bureau chief, also will make a presentation.

The School of Communication’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Journalism is named for Robert R. Eunson, a 1936 graduate of Arizona State Teachers College, as Northern Arizona University was then known, who enjoyed a distinguished career as a war correspondent, journalist and news executive with the Associated Press.

For information, contact Annette McGivney at Annette.Mcgivney@nau.edu, (928) 523-2646, Peter Friederici at Peter.Friederici@nau.edu, (928) 523-6378, or Mary Tolan at Mary.Tolan@nau.edu, (928) 523-0465.