BRISTOL, Tenn., Sept. 1, 2021 — As part of its 2021-22 speaker series, “Listen to Your Life,” King University’s Institute for Faith & Culture (IFC) is welcoming award-winning investigative reporter and producer Hannah Rappleye.
Rappleye is a member of the NBC News Investigative Unit, where she focuses on issues of criminal justice, civil rights and the environment. Her work bears a particular emphasis on giving a voice to underrepresented populations, and she has reported on varying challenges in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, including the youngest victims of the opioid crisis and most recently, the growing number of coalfield communities without access to clean water.
On Thursday, Sept. 9 at 10 a.m., Rappleye will share “Water, Spirit, Truth: Serving Others through the Calling of Journalism” in King’s Memorial Chapel on the main campus in Bristol. That evening, she will share “Faith, Blood, Bone: Connecting with Others through the Art of Storytelling,” at 7 p.m. at Sinking Spring Presbyterian, 136 E. Main Street in Abingdon, Virginia. This event is free and open to the community. In line with Sinking Spring’s community guidelines, guests are requested to wear a mask and to social distance, where possible.
“Storytelling serves the purpose of bringing people together, helping us see the many common threads we share with others whose lives are very different from our own,” said Martin Dotterweich, Ph.D., director of the IFC. “Hannah is someone who grew up in rural Michigan, works in Rockefeller Center, and is able to connect with a wide range of personalities and professions, whether someone is an urban resident, rural community member, border patrol agent, police officer or inmate. Creating this kind of connective tissue is central to the goals of the IFC, and we look forward to sharing in her insight and experience.”
Rappleye won an Emmy in 2017 for her coverage of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. Her work has been recognized by several organizations, including Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, the Alliance for Women in Media, the National Association of Black Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Her reporting has also been supported by several foundations, including The Investigative Fund and the Open Society Foundation.
She received her bachelor’s degree from The New School, and her master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.
For more information about the Institute, including the full schedule for the speaker series, visit king.edu/faithandculture.