SARA SCHONHARDT
Dear SEJ Memb
ers,
This letter signifies my interest in running for a position on the SEJ Board of Directors in the Active membership category.
As a journalist who has worked in many different roles across the news industry — as a reporter and editor for nonprofit and for-profit media and a board member for the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club — I understand the value organizations like SEJ can provide its members, particularly as our profession continues to undergo rapid change and transformation. This is all the more true for environmental coverage.
My interest in running for a board position is to help support and advance SEJ’s mission of strengthening the “quality, reach and viability” of environmental reporting. That aim is very similar to what I strive for in my current role as Managing Editor of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN).
As part of a nonprofit focused on bolstering environmental and climate news coverage through training, tools, small grants and other targeted support, I provide editing assistance and mentorship to journalists around the world so they can not only increase public understanding of environmental issues, but determine how to make their environment-focused stories representative and relevant to diverse audiences.
These activities are also a core part of SEJ’s mission. And while traditionally EJN has focused on reporters outside the US, as the environment becomes an increasingly global concern and global story, I believe there is room to view our reporting through a more collective, cross-border perspective.
Prior to joining EJN, I worked as a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal in Indonesia covering stories that looked at the social and environmental impacts of mining and palm oil expansion. I reported on the devastation wrought by earthquakes and tsunamis, landslides and perennial forest fires. For a 2017 fellowship with the International Reporting Project, I wrote about how climate change was impacting indigenous communities — particularly women and girls — in rural Guatemala.
Many of these issues are the same ones we cover now with increasing frequency in our domestic media, and I’d like to explore how we can support and build environmental coverage that is local but also tied into broader global challenges and experiences.
Before joining The Journal, I worked as a freelance writer and stringer in Indonesia for The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and Voice of America. So I also understand what it’s like to be a reporter who is not employed full time with a traditional media outlet, and I’d like to help to advance the types of programs SEJ can offer to respond to the needs of those members.
And in addition to my work at EJN, I report regularly for a local newspaper in the tiny county of Rappahannock, Virginia, so I understand, too, the challenges smaller news outlets face covering environmental issues that can sometimes seem overly complex or unimportant to readers.
I believe my experience could provide a valuable contribution to the SEJ Board and help enhance the work it does to serve members at a time when environmental reporting is as vital as it’s ever been. I hope you’ll consider me for a position.
Sincerely,
Sara Schonhardt
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