The College of Journalism and Mass Communication welcomed Kevin Abourezk, a 2012 graduate of the professional journalism master of arts program, as one of UNL’s Distinguished Alumni at the Multicultural Homecoming event on Sept. 20, 2021.
Kevin Abourezk is an award-winning journalist who spent 18 years as a reporter and editor for the Lincoln Journal Star, where he wrote thousands of stories and produced numerous news videos. He is the winner of the Associated Press’s Best Enterprise Story Award in 2006 and the prestigious Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism from the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families for his reporting on the impact of alcohol sales in Whiteclay, Nebraska to residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Abourezk has spent his career documenting the lives, accomplishments and tragedies of Native American people. In 2017 he joined Indianz.com, a Native American news website owned and operated by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. He hosts a bi-weekly podcast for Indianz.com called “Indian Times” that focuses on Native American news. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of South Dakota and a master of arts degree in Professional Journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Multicultural Homecoming is an annual event hosted by the Chancellor's Commission on the Status of People of Color and the Jackie Gaghan Multicultural Center. The program seeks to increase connections between multicultural alumni, academic faculty and the current student body through events held throughout Homecoming week.
