Staff

APRN’s reporters are based in Anchorage, Juneau and Washington, D.C. Additional reporters are employed by and located at APRN member stations all across Alaska. Reporter profiles are presented below. Other staff (technical, financial, etc.) are noted at the APTI site.

Annie Feidt

Editor / Producer, Alaska News Nightly
afeidt [at] aprn [dot] org

Annie Feidt started her journalism career in 1997 at CNN Headline News, where she mastered the art of the teleprompter and learned to whittle down complex stories to 100 words or less. A yearning to tackle more in-depth reporting convinced her to accept a job at Minnesota Public Radio where she produced the regional edition of All Things Considered for five years. Feidt left Minnesota in 2003 to follow winter around the world for ten months. When she returned, she wanted to get back into radio but wasn’t ready to give up the cold weather and easy access to adventure so she joined APRN’s staff in November 2004.

Lori Townsend

Reporter / Host, Alaska News Nightly
ltownsend [at] aprn [dot] org

Lori Townsend got her start in broadcasting at the age of 11 as the park announcer of the fast pitch baseball games in Deer Park, Wisconsin.

She has worked in print and broadcast journalism for more than 15 years. She was the co-founder and former Editor of Northern Aspects, a magazine featuring northern Wisconsin writers and artists. She worked for 7 years at tribal station WOJB on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibway Reservation in Wisconsin, first as an on-air programmer and special projects producer and eventually News Director.

In 1997 she co-hosted a continuing Saturday afternoon public affairs talk program on station KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Radio brought her to Alaska and she helped co-found the non-profit broadcast company Native Voice Communications with veteran Alaskan broadcasters Nellie Moore, D’Anne Hamilton, Len Anderson, Sharon McConnell and Veronica Iya. NVC created the award-winning Independent Native News as well as producing many other documentaries and productions. Townsend was NVC’s technical trainer and assistant producer of INN.

Through her freelance work, she has produced news and feature stories nationally and internationally for Independent Native News, National Native News, NPR , Pacifica, Monitor Radio, Radio Netherlands and AIROS. Her print work and interviews have been published in News from Indian Country, Yakama Nation Review and other publications. Ms. Townsend has also worked as a broadcast trainer for the Native American Journalist’s Association and with NPR’s Doug Mitchell and as a freelance editor. Townsend is the recipient of numerous awards for her work from the Alaska Press Club, the Native American Journalists Association and a gold and a silver reel award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

She is an avid reader, a rabid gardener and counts water skiing, training horses, diving and a welding certification among her past and current interests.

Steve Heimel

Reporter / Host, Alaska Morning News, Alaska Economic Report, Talk of Alaska
sheimel [at] aprn [dot] org

Steve Heimel has spent more than 23 years at APRN. He was educated in art academies and remains a practicing artist. He has been a tireless advocate for innovation in public broadcasting since moving to it from commercial broadcasting in 1974, where he worked at the top stations in two of the nation’s top ten radio markets — KILT in Houston and WDVR in Philadelphia. He has been a consultant for the NPR Training Channel, Pocahontas Broadcasting and CPB’s Mid-Level Producers’ Workshops. He was one of the founders of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and Audio Independents. He led the first journalist’s exchange mission to the Soviet Far East in 1989. He has walked 1,300 miles of the Appalachian Trail and is writing a memoir, entitled “It’s Only Radio.” He also hosts “The Truck Stop,” a Sunday afternoon traditional American music program on public radio station KNBA in Anchorage.

Len Anderson

Anchorage Municipal Reporter, KSKA and APRN
landerson [at] kska [dot] org

Len Anderson is a second-generation broadcaster who put off his eventual slide into the profession by teaching English and Scandinavian Studies for six years at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. He has also taught at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin and at University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue, Alaska. After working in commercial radio Len joined public radio in 1977 via KEYA, located on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. In 1979 he moved to KOTZ in Kotzebue, Alaska. During his 16 years in the far north, he also edited the Arctic Sounder newspaper. Len moved south to Anchorage in 1994 and was freelancing until joining KNBA’s news department where he helped produce and occasionally host National Native News and Native America Calling – Wellness Edition. Len left to help create Native Voice Communications and Independent Native News. He joined KSKA and the APRN News team in June 2003.

Dave Donaldson

Capitol Correspondent (Juneau)
ddonaldson [at] aprn [dot] org
907-586-6948 voice
Dave Donaldson first came to Alaska to cover state government in early 1991 — a month after the beginning of the Wally Hickel administration. He is now one of the senior reporters stationed at the capitol where he has followed more than 17 legislative sessions and four different governors.Dave’s background in radio began in North Carolina where he worked for the North Carolina News Network — a commercial radio news organization with more than 80 affiliates. There, he worked as anchor, producer and reporter. During that time, he also did freelance work for WUNC in Chapel Hill and soon found he preferred the public radio format and presentation over commercial newscasts.

Donaldson lives in Juneau year-round with his wife. His two children are grown.