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Emily Schwing on Muck Rack

Emily Schwing

Verified
Alaska
As seen in: KYUK (Bethel, AK), MSN, The New York Times, Business Insider, HuffPost, The Washington Post, Here & Now Anytime, NPR, The Atlantic, U.S. News and World Report, WIRED and
Covers:  land use and management policy, climate change, environment, tribal and rural affairs, Arctic affairs, infrastructure, disaster response
Journalist w/ bylines @KYUKNews @WashingtonPost @nytimes @highcountrynews @TheWorld @Reveal @NPR. Likes: dogs, skis. Dislikes: hot WX, spiders. Go bag packed

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Emily Schwing’s Biography

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Emily Schwing is an award-winning investigative journalist with more than two decades of experience in print and radio. Her work reporting on a public health and safety crisis inside Alaska's rural public schools for ProPublica garnered eight awards in 2025, including an IRE, a Headliner and recognition from the Northwest Chapter of the SPJ. Her 2024 investigation into the fraudulent use of federal funds in the aftermath of typhoon Merbok resulted in federal policy changes at FEMA and a civil r…

Emily Schwing’s Journalist Portfolio

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Alaska Ignored Warning Signs of a Budget Crisis. Now It Doesn't Have Funding to Fix Crumbling Sch...

Alaska Ignored Warning Signs of a Budget Crisis. Now It Doesn't Have Funding to Fix Crumbling Sch...

Lawmakers only budgeted $40 million of the nearly $800 million that districts say is needed to fix and mainta…

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Newtok, Alaska, Was Supposed to Be a Model for Climate Relocation. Here's How It Went Wrong.

Newtok, Alaska, Was Supposed to Be a Model for Climate Relocation. Here's How It Went Wrong.

The project's challenges highlight how ill-prepared the U.S. is to respond to the way climate change is makin…

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Forced to relocate by climate change, Alaskan villagers found a new crisis

Forced to relocate by climate change, Alaskan villagers found a new crisis

The relocation highlights America's failure to prepare for the ways climate change is making some places unin…

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Rural Alaskan schools are crumbling as the state fails to provide funding to fix them

Rural Alaskan schools are crumbling as the state fails to provide funding to fix them

Rural schools in Alaska are plagued with health and safety issues. The state has failed for nearly two decade…

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A Rural Alaska School Asked the State to Fund a Repair. Nearly Two Decades Later, the Building Is...

A Rural Alaska School Asked the State to Fund a Repair. Nearly Two Decades Later, the Building Is...

Rural school districts depend on the state to fund construction and maintenance projects. But over the past 2…

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Memories, stories, and family heirlooms make the final move from Newtok

Memories, stories, and family heirlooms make the final move from Newtok

The Newtok Village Council has decommissioned the village, deeming it too unsafe to live in. Nearly 90 people…

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Articles

High fuel and food prices mean Alaskans may have to choose between the two

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By Emily Schwing Verified
| Marketplace Verified
Americans are having a tough time stretching their dollars to cover soaring energy costs. In Alaska, some people are choosing between buying food and buying fuel to power their vehicles and heat their homes. And as the state descends into winter, residents who live in some of the nation’s most remote communities say they're scared of what may come. “Gas is so expensive,” said Merle Custer, a Tribal Council member from Shungnak, where gasoline currently costs $26 per gallon.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?
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By Emily Schwing Verified
| The Seattle Times Verified
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

In Alaska, Some Early Voting Sites in Rural Villages Have Not Yet Opened

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By Emily Schwing Verified
| The New York Times Verified
As the Trump administration launched a pre-emptive attack on election results in Alaska’s critical U.S. Senate race, some polling places in rural villages key to Democratic hopes have been slow to open, tribal leaders and voting-rights activists say. What they don’t know is if the closed polling places are a result of a purposeful attempt to block thousands from voting or because voting has always been tricky to manage in the far-flung, rural villages of Alaska’s wilderness.
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Interview

What was your first job as a journalist?

I was an unpaid intern at KUER FM90 in Salt Lake City. I once hosted an impromptu interview in an elevator with Walter Cronkite.

Why did you become a journalist?

It's quite honestly in my DNA. My ancestors were bellringers in medieval Germany.

When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?

On a trail in the woods, running or xc skiing around with my dogs

Awards

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Investigative Reporters and Editors Award

2025 - Radio

"Alaska's Crumbling Schools"is a multi-part radio series that delves deep into the public health and safety crisis inside Alaska's rural public schools. More than half of the state's rural public schools are owned by the state. Chronic underfunding and a decades-long backlog of construction and maintenance projects means many students and teachers spend their days inside buildings that pose serious risks to their health and physical safety.

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Pulitzer Prize

2021 - Public Service

2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for work with the Coronavirus Tracking Team at The New York Times

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Best of the West

2018 - Investigative Journalism

PRNDI

2018 - Enterprise/Investigative Reporting

Emily won first place for her story Hiding in Plain Sight: Accused Priests on Gonzaga's Campus. The reporting was produced in partnership with the Northwest News Network and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2017 - Sports Audio Reporting

First Place for "A Superhero, A Fish And A Northwest Baseball Team's Planet-Friendly Marketing Scheme"

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2016 - News Photography

First Place for a breaking news photo of an oil tanker train derailment in Mosier, Oregon

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Alaska Press Club

2016 - Best Breaking News

3rd Place

Society for Professional Journalists - Northwest Chapter

2014 - Best Sports Reporting

3rd place

Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards

2014 - Best Continuing Coverage and Best Feature Reporting

Alaska Broadcaster's Association

2014 - Continuing Coverage

Best News Story and Best Feature Story

Alaska Press Club

2014 - Best Single Story Reporting

Society of Professional Journalists Award

2013 - Sports Reporting

First place for coverage of the 2013 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race

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Alaska Broadcaster's Association Goldie

2012 - Best Radio Feature
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