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Natalie Skowlund

Journalist / Editor / Translator

Award-winning bilingual journalist focused on multimedia storytelling across the Americas. Experience in multimedia reporting, editing, bilingual translation, social media and newsletters. Natalie previously worked also a Fulbright scholar in Colombia. Her work has been recognized by the Indigenous Journalists Association, Association of Health Care Journalists, Society of Professional Journalists, Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, Colorado Broadcasters Association, and Broadcast Education Association.

NPR •

Cuts to federal grants affecting even non-profits that don't get them

Three times a week, Armando Guardiola wakes in the bleary morning hours and pulls on his clothes. The retired railroad worker traipses around his yellow ranch-style home in Commerce City, Colorado, making last-minute preparations before a public shuttle arrives. He's heading to an early shift, and he can't be late — his life depends on it. By 7:30 a.m., Guardiola is at a kidney dialysis clinic in Westminster. The 71-year-old spends hours at a time here, in a room where close to 20 strangers...
KFF Health News •

Deportation fears add to mental health problems confronting Colorado resort town workers

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. — When Adolfo Román García-Ramírez walks home in the evening from his shift at a grocery store in this central Colorado mountain town, sometimes he thinks back on his childhood in Nicaragua. Adults, he recollects, would scare the kids with tales of the “Mona Bruja,” or “Monkey Witch.” Step too far into the dark, they told him, and you might just get snatched up by the giant monstrous monkey who lives in the shadows.
Now, when...
Colorado Public Radio •

How Latino seniors are beating loneliness in Denver

Three times a week, Armando Guardiola wakes in the bleary morning hours and pulls on his clothes. The retired railroad worker traipses around his yellow ranch-style home in Commerce City making last-minute preparations before a public shuttle arrives.He’s heading to an early shift, and he can’t be late — his life depends on it.By 7:30 a.m., Guardiola is at a kidney dialysis clinic in Westminster. The 71-year-old spends hours at a time here, in a room where close...
KUNC •

Young musicians give Mexican folk music new life at Denver mariachi conference

On a rainy Friday in Denver, Esmeralda Cuevas-Lara stands in a classroom at Metropolitan State University holding a water bottle to her lips in place of a microphone. As a few other students sit in desks watching, Cuevas-Lara belts out lyrics from the Mexican mariachi ballad “El Herradero.”“Ay, qué linda, qué rechula las fiestas de mi rancho…,” she sings in Spanish.Cuevas-Lara moved to Longmont from Guanajuato, Mexico when she was 15 years old. The song, she said, brings her back there.“This is...
KUNC •

Boulder County’s new higher minimum wage could make a dent, but workers say it’s ‘not enough’

Conor Hall takes pride in his knowledge of food. Each workday, he answers customers’ questions about which cheeses to pair with a particular salami, or what it means for a ham to be “uncured.”Hall is an assistant deli manager at a King Soopers grocery story in Boulder. His shifts vary, sometimes forcing him to be up as early as 3 a.m. while other times he closes out the evening. Hall makes around $23 per hour now, well above the local minimum wage, but it hasn’t always been that way. When he sta...
KUNC •

New to gardening? Find your green thumb by starting small

The phrase "gardening season" may bring a few images to mind: large beds of colorful wildflowers… rows of neatly staked tomato plants… big bags of mulch stacked up against the side of the house. Or perhaps your mental image of gardening looks a little more modest. As in, potted herbs growing on a windowsill. That's the case for KUNC digital producer Natalie Skowlund. She recently decided to research and write an introduction to gardening for novices. And she lives in an apartment, so she wanted t...
KUNC •

'Mother of the Colorado Trail' highlighted in new archive

On a sunny Monday in March, Grace Marx unpacks gear from the back of a car at the remote South Platte River trailhead outside of Conifer, Colorado. She’s preparing for a three-day backpacking trip with her husband and two young kids. The trailhead where Marx and her family will embark serves as one of many starting points for the Colorado Trail, a 567-mile high-altitude wilderness path that traverses eight mountain ranges between Denver and Durango.Marx’s family isn’t new to the Colorado Trail....
Cronkite News •

Young migrants in Tapachula cling to fragmented childhood

TAPACHULA, Mexico – Of the thousands of migrants who pass through Mexican shelters each year, at least 1 in 3 are children.
Children and teenagers are fleeing north in droves, from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala and a host of other countries. Some come with extended families or older siblings. Others travel with friends, but at least half attempt the journey alone, according to UNICEF.
Young migrants live in stark conditions, often sleeping in the open air or next to strangers in crowd...

Awards & Recognition