Education:
Bachelor's degree in English communications, Ft. Lewis College.
Professional background:
Eric was born in Ft. Collins and grew up in Colorado Springs. His family has been farming and ranching in eastern El Paso County for more than 100 years. Eric got his start in radio at KDUR, the student-community station at his alma mater, Ft. Lewis College in Durango. From there he moved to KOTO in Telluride. He then took a job at the regional High Plains News Service in Billings, Montana. A series of fellowships supported Eric's work after that and allowed him to follow his interest in health topics. The Kaiser Family Foundation helped him report on mental health in the United States and infectious disease in southern and east Africa. The Knight Foundation allowed him to spend four months studying epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The Crime, Communities and Culture Felloship from the Open Society Institute sent Eric to report on prisons in the western U.S. Eric spent most of 2003 living in and reporting from Cape Town, South Africa, as a freelancer before becoming the news director at KRCC in Colorado Springs, a position he held for three years before moving to Colorado Public Radio.
Awards:
Colorado Broadcasters Association: Best Sports or Special Events Coverage for Telluride Hang Gliding Festival - 1994; Scripps Howard Foundation: National Journalism Award for Industrial Hog Farm on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation - 1999; National Federation of Community Broadcasters: Golden Reel Award - 2000; Silver Reel Award - 2000 and Golden Reel Award - 2001, for National News/Public Affairs Programming for Staying Healthy and Surviving: Native American Health in the New Century; Silver Reel Award for National News and Commentaries for Western Stampede: The Rush for Coalbed Methane - 2001; Colorado Healthcare Communicators Media Representative of the Year - 2010.