DENVER – Valley Courier reporter Priscilla Waggoner is one of 10 Colorado journalists selected for five-month fellowships to strengthen water reporting at newsrooms across the state and build a peer network skilled at covering this complex topic of fundamental importance to our state.

Fellows’ reporting projects will help uncover and explain timely water issues facing Coloradans — including the human, ecological, and economic impacts of drought, climate change, forest health, demand management, water quality, agriculture, industry, and more.

To build their knowledge and skills, they also will participate in a series of four “Water Fluency for Journalists” workshops presented by Fresh Water News (an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news service) and receive coaching support for individual and collaborative reporting projects from the Colorado News Collaborative (an independent, nonprofit local media resource hub and ideas lab involving journalists from more than 140 newsrooms across the state).

The fellowship experience and $1,000 journalist stipends are made possible with support from Colorado Media Project and the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation.

More than 30 talented journalists from across the state applied for the fellowship, each with a compelling desire to uncover and share water stories with their communities and unique audiences.

In selecting 10 fellows to receive training, coaching and financial support, the review committee prioritized developing a cohort of grantees that serves a range of Colorado geographies, river basins, and rural/mountain/urban/suburban communities. The committee also prioritized selecting fellows with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, representing a variety of mediums (print, digital, broadcast, radio, photo, data analysis, and visualization).

Waggoner has nearly 30 years of experience as a professional writer in numerous capacities including grants, curricula, video, film, and newspaper reporting. In her previous life, she was a screenwriter and recipient of the Nicholls Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. But she missed her home state and, upon returning to Colorado, worked as a reporter in Kiowa County on Colorado’s southeastern plains for five years before recently joining Alamosa’s Valley Courier newspaper in the San Luis Valley – the largest alpine desert valley in the world and one of the few where agriculture is the main economic driver.

Waggoner says that in her work as a reporter, she feels a personal responsibility to inform the public about important issues such as water, drought, and climate change in a way that effectively reaches a cross-section of residents with varied opinions and interests.

“While not all small towns are the same, (my) experience did provide me with a deeper understanding of the numerous ways drought can impact a town, the lives of the people who live there, and the perspective they have on the world that surrounds them,” she says. “It also taught me to connect with people who had backgrounds and opinions that were completely unlike my own.”

Others chosen for the fellowship include: Zack Newman, 9News (KUSA-TV), Tara Flanagan, Ark Valley Voice; Michael Elizabeth Sakas, Colorado Public Radio; Trevor Reid, Greeley Tribune; Erin McIntyre, Ouray County Plaindealer; Kate Perdoni, Rocky Mountain PBS; Philip Poston, Sentinel Colorado; Olivia Emmer, The Sopris Sun; and Jim Mimiago, The (Cortez) Journal.