From the Nominator

Homelessness is a major issue in affluent, fast-growing Seattle and surrounding King County, and several University of Washington faculty study homelessness, poverty, and housing affordability. This story/video package features an anthropology graduate student, Graham Pruss, as an expert voice on an often overlooked aspect of homelessness: people who live in their cars. The package, and its associated media relations plan, was developed to coordinate with the release of an annual census of people experiencing homelessness, the Point in Time Count, but also aimed to position Graham as an expert for future stories. Although the news office doesn’t typically promote graduate students, Graham had written on and worked extensively with people who live in their vehicles. Because that population was expected to represent a significant share of King County’s homeless in the annual count, we created this package to provide media outlets with a local expert to put the issue in context. We distributed the video and short story to local media twice: a few days before the Point in Time Count announcement, and again after we updated the story with the actual figures. To gain attention beyond Seattle, we worked with Graham to produce a separate analysis piece for an outlet called The Conversation. Ultimately, Graham was featured in local coverage of the Point in Time Count, his analysis piece was published by The Conversation, and he has since been interviewed by other local, national, and international media.

From the Judges

The University of Washington was able to highlight comprehensive results and strategy despite not being a big media moment in terms of event/key opinion leader/topic. The story helped raise awareness for a large local issue that then garnered national and international coverage. The fact that the team was able to place and showcase a graduate student as a thought leader versus the traditional seasoned expert was done well, and paid dividends in transitioning a local and regional story into one that can be related to in communities across the country.