Idaho Education News has hired Kyle Pfannenstiel to cover K-12 public education.
Pfannenstiel previously reported on rural health care and COVID-19 for the Post Register in Idaho Falls as a corps member of Report for America, a national service journalism initiative.
“Kyle has a lot of energy and passion for journalism so we’re looking forward to adding him to our team,” said EdNews managing editor Jennifer Swindell.
Starting in June 2020, Pfannenstiel built on the Post Register’s COVID-19 reporting to serve the roughly quarter-million-population region of eastern Idaho with the latest pandemic and public health developments, often explaining complex sets of guidance, data and decisions. His work highlighted the unclear future for telehealth, spotty data from state and local agencies, and a push by doctors for COVID-19 policies grounded in science.
Pfannenstiel and Sally Krutzig, formerly a Post Register reporter, won best pandemic report in daily print journalism by the Idaho Press Club for their Dec. 2020 article, “Faces of COVID.”
Pfannenstiel graduated with his bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from University of Idaho in Moscow in 2020. He has interned at Idaho Public Radio and the McClure Center for Public Policy Research, the Idaho Press and Idaho National Laboratory, a national nuclear energy research laboratory.
Idaho Education News is a non-profit, online news organization launched nine years ago. The experienced staff of journalists reports primarily on Idaho public education, but also reports on national education issues and their impact on Idaho. Idaho Education News is a public awareness service where parents, patrons, educators and lawmakers can find the most accurate and useful information on issues that affect Idaho’s children and their future.
Idaho EdNews has won multiple Idaho Press Club awards and has been named a finalist in Education Writers Association and Online News Association national contests.
Please contact Kyle Pfannenstiel with story ideas and comments at [email protected].
