College of Liberal Arts
feat. Paula Dobbyn
Join us via Zoom
Local journalists play a vital role in informing communities and holding power to account. But the profession—and the First Amendment itself—faces growing challenges. In this talk, veteran journalist and UAF Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism Paula Dobbyn explores why strong local newsrooms remain essential to democracy, even amid shrinking media resources and increasing pressure on journalists.
Drawing on more than 30 years of reporting experience across Alaska and beyond, Dobbyn reflects on the evolving role of local journalism and the responsibility reporters carry in documenting the issues that shape their communities.
Dobbyn is the Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a veteran journalist whose career spans print, radio and digital media. A Pulitzer Prize finalist with Honolulu Civil Beat, she has also reported for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s News Source and KTOO and is a former Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism.
This lecture is made possible by an endowment from the late Helen Snedden, in honor of her husband, former Fairbanks Daily News-Miner publisher C.W. Snedden.
About Paula Dobbyn
Paula Dobbyn is an award-winning journalist with more than three decades of experience reporting across print, broadcast and digital media. She currently serves as the Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she teaches environmental journalism and works with students in the Department of Science and Environmental Journalism.
Dobbyn has reported widely on environmental issues, climate change, fisheries, public lands and social policy. Her work has appeared in outlets including Honolulu Civil Beat, the Anchorage Daily News and Hakai Magazine, and she has covered stories ranging from Alaska’s commercial fishing industry and coastal ecosystems to homelessness and public accountability.
In addition to her reporting, Dobbyn has worked in communications leadership roles with organizations such as Alaska Sea Grant and Trout Unlimited and has taught journalism as an adjunct professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
A New Jersey native and the child of Irish immigrants, Dobbyn holds a bachelor’s degree in political theory from Hampshire College and a master’s degree in international human rights law from a joint program at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Galway. She lives in Alaska with her family.
