John Daley is a health reporter for CPR News. He has been with Colorado Public Radio since 2014 and is a proud graduate of Manual High School in Denver.

Education:
Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University; Master’s degree in journalism, Northwestern University.

Professional background:
John Daley joined Colorado Public Radio full time in 2014 after freelancing for both CPR and NPR throughout the previous year. In 2012, he moved to Denver from Salt Lake City where we spent more than a decade as a beat and investigative reporter. John has broad experience as a journalist, having worked in both television and radio at KSL in Salt Lake City where he’s covered a wide range of topics, including health care, politics, transportation, immigration, and the Olympics.

In addition to his work as a reporter, John has completed three journalism fellowships. He was chosen for the “Covering the Green Economy” fellowship at Arizona State University in 2010. He was a Western Enterprise Reporting Fellow at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West in 2009, where he wrote an essay for the book, “How the West was Warmed: Responding to Climate Change in the Rockies.” In 2007-08, John studied climate change and the impact of global warming as a Knight Journalism Fellow, also at Stanford.

Awards:
Throughout his career, John has earned several distinctions and awards from various organizations. Among those, John won a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism from the University of Southern California in 2011. He was also honored with the Don Baker Award for Investigative Reporting from the Utah Society of Professional Journalists in 2011, several first place Capitol Beat Awards for in-depth reporting, and the Quintus C. Wilson Ethics Award for his coverage of the Utah legislature in 2009.
Q & A

Why I became a journalist:

Well, I like to ask questions. Where would we be without them? I wanted to make a difference, and I thought that being able to help inform and educate the public was a good way to do that. What’s more, I believe that in a democratic society powerful public and private institutions need a watchdog. That’s the journalist’s job. If you are curious and like variety, like to write, like going interesting places and meeting interesting people, what could be a better gig?

How did you get into radio:
My route to radio was a circuitous one. I started out after college as a public high school social studies teacher in Cambridge, Mass. Then I made a switch to journalism, working as a local TV reporter, in Iowa, then Vermont, then Utah. I moved to Denver and was ready for something new, so I started freelancing for CPR, and other outlets. When a full-time position opened up at CPR, I jumped at it.

How I ended up at CPR:
Education Reporter Jenny Brundin and I worked alongside each other in Utah, while covering the never-boring state legislature for our respective newsrooms. She moved to Colorado a few years ago, and when I first started exploring a move to Colorado, Jenny was the first person I called. She helped me get my foot in the door at CPR, and the rest is history, as they say.

Also, I grew up here in Colorado, and I’m a proud graduate of Manual High School in Denver. I’m delighted to be joining the CPR news team, and it’s great to be back in Colorado.