Originally from New Jersey, and most recently a resident of Oakland, California, Waldholz says the rain is one of the many things she likes about Sitka. (KCAW photo/Emily Forman)
When Ed Ronco left KCAW’s newsroom at the end of September, one of the first people we sought out to fill that gap was Rachel Waldholz. Rachel was our 2012 summer intern, cranking out one fine news story after another despite the fairly miserable weather. A piece Rachel produced that summer on geothermal upgrades to the Tenakee bath house made a splash at NPR, and she was named one of the network’s 10 finalists for the prestigious Kroc Fellowship. Rachel is a graduate of Barnard College. She holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Her master’s thesis, A Confused War, won Best Documentary at the PovertyCure International Film Festival, and the Grand Prize at the Bay Area Women in Film & Media Film Festival. So what were the chances she’d be free to work at Raven Radio while we searched for a replacement for Ed? “I had been working for Current TV, but it had just gone off the air,” she says. Rachel had only seen Sitka in the summertime. “I wasn’t sure if I could hack it in the winter!” But, as often happens in Sitka, her short-term commitment evolved into an interest in sticking around. She applied for the permanent job and, after an extensive search, we found our new reporter already at her desk!
Rachel’s official start date is January 15, 2014.
