Gabriel Pietrorazio honored by Military Reporters & Editors
WASHINGTON — During its annual conference for journalists, Military Reporters & Editors presented awards to the winners of the 2025 MRE Journalism Contest. Gabriel Pietrorazio wins MRE’s Honorable Mention for Enterprise/Feature Reporting (Division 2) award for story published by KJZZ.
Award Summary
Article: “Why the Navajo Nation is pushing to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act”, KJZZ published 6/24/2024.
Prize Category: Honorable Mention Enterprise-Feature Reporting / Division 2, Text journalism published in traditional print or online media.
Best work on a single topic containing numerous voices, creativity, and sources of information/data, or focused reporting that provides deeper context into a subject, in contrast to a typical news story, published by news organization with fewer than 20 reporters.
Judges’ Comments:
Gabriel Pietrorazio walks us through the curious history of uranium mining that took place in Navajo Nation from the 1940s through the 1980s. While mining was instrumental in helping government efforts in the nuclear arms race starting during World War II, land in the Southwest and the people of Navajo, Hopi and neighboring tribes are left scarred. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expired in June 2024, leaving Indigenous and other “downwinder” communities left behind. This piece explores family stories and area history, and shows the importance of reauthorizing funds to take care of the people whose health continues to suffer.
Read the Winning Article
- Why the Navajo Nation is pushing to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act , KJZZ 91.5 Phoenix (6/24/2024)
Journalist Biography
Gabriel Pietrorazio
Gabriel Pietrorazio is the tribal natural resources reporter for NPR member station KJZZ in Phoenix, Arizona. He’s a 2020 graduate from Hobart College in Geneva, New York, earning bachelor’s degrees in Media and Society as well as Political Science and a minor in American
Studies. A year later, he earned his master’s degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Before moving to the Southwest, he interned at ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” – then as a news assistant for “PBS NewsHour” – while freelancing for several local and national news outlets about Indigenous affairs. As a long-time associate member of the Native American Journalists Association – which has since been renamed the Indigenous Journalist Association – Gabriel has been closely covering Indian Country for at least six years now.
He’s received more than 50 reporting awards and fellowships from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists, Online News Association, North American Agricultural Journalists, Military Reporters & Editors, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Solutions Journalism Network, Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources, Indigenous Journalists Association, Syracuse Press Club and Arizona Press Club, among others.
Gabriel also sits as the regional vice president for the West on the North American Agricultural Journalists’ board. Lately, his local radio reporting has aired on national programs, including “Here & Now,” “The World” and NPR’s “Weekend Edition.