Remembering Elizabeth Arnold: Beloved journalism professor and trailblazing journalist

Elizabeth Arnold, professor in the Department of Journalism and Public Communications (JPC), whose award-winning journalism career covering presidential politics, Capitol Hill and the global environment spanned more than two decades, died at her Anchorage home on Thursday, June 18.

After graduating from Colgate University in Upstate New York in 1982, Arnold began her career at the Tundra Drums, a small Western Alaska newspaper that served Bethel and the surrounding villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. She later transitioned into statewide radio reporting at KTOO-FM in Juneau, which launched her onto the national radio stage as a reporter at National Public Radio (NPR).

Arnold spent the better part of a decade in Washington, D.C., covering national and global stories from the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound to the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996 for NPR. In addition to covering politics, Arnold used her reporting to illuminate critical environmental issues like climate change, salmon restoration, endangered species protections and explorations of the North Pole and Bering Sea.

She was a frequent contributor to national and international radio programs from NPR's "Morning Edition" as well as American Public Media's "Marketplace," GBH/Public Radio Exchange's "The World" and "America Abroad," and National Geographic Radio Expeditions. While Arnold's career spanned coast-to-coast, she eventually returned to Alaska and joined JPC as an associate professor of journalism in 2009 and had recently been promoted to professor.

Arnold spent more than a decade teaching Alaska's next generation of journalists and public communicators, weaving her years of knowledge and expertise as a reporter into the fundamentals of journalism. Her courses ranged from journalism ethics and political reporting to the environment, multimedia reporting and podcasting. In addition to her curriculum, she mentored students by serving as chair of the Student Media Board, advising the student radio station KRUA and was a founding member of the Alaska Project for Excellence in Journalism. Her deep wealth of knowledge, passion for storytelling and commitment made Arnold highly respected among the hundreds of students she taught, her colleagues and fellow journalists in Alaska and beyond.

Throughout her career, she was recognized for her outstanding contributions, receiving the Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress in 1997, the prestigious Alfred Dupont Columbia Journalism Silver Baton in 1994-95 as part of NPR's political team, was honored in 2018 as a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and most recently was honored with the First Amendment Award at the Press Club Conference and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Arnold's impact in Alaska and on the national and international stage was tremendous. She was described as a "top-notch" journalist who used her voice to amplify issues, conveying them in a way that made her listeners smarter and more connected. At UAA, her ability to teach, mentor and provide her students with engaging curriculum made her a favorite.

Arnold will be deeply missed not only by the university community, her colleagues and the students she taught, but by journalists in the state and around the world who reported alongside her.