Bente Birkeland

Public Affairs Reporter

@BenteBirkeland[email protected]

Bente is an award-winning journalist who joined Colorado Public Radio in August 2018 after a decade of reporting on the Colorado state capitol for the Rocky Mountain Community Radio collaborative and KUNC. In 2017, Bente was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and she was awarded with a National Investigative Reporting Award by SPJ a year later.

Professional Background:

Before joining CPR and KUNC, she was a reporter at KMOX Radio and KOMU TV, and also worked as a research analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Awards:

In 2017, Bente was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and she was awarded with a National Investigative Reporting Award by SPJ a year later. She also won an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2015 for her work on KRCC's series on the Southwest Chief, "Railroad West."

Throughout her career, Bente has been honored with various accolades from the Colorado Broadcaster's Association, the Association of Statehouse Reporter and Editors, the Third Coast International Audio Festival, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Mortar Board National Honorary Society and the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Economics Honorary Society.

Education:

Bachelor's degree economics with a mathematical emphasis, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Master's degree in journalism, University of Missouri

Colorado Matters

Election denial leads to grassroots efforts to find potential voter fraud

Thousands of voters in this state, perhaps tens of thousands, have had the same experience in the past year or two: a knock at their door from people asking about their ballot. These volunteers aren’t with campaigns; they’re with groups trying to make a case that there’s fraud in the election system. CPR public affairs reporter Bente Birkeland has spent the past few months reporting on this effort in tandem with NPR voting reporter Miles Parks.
By Bente Birkeland