Communication & Media

The Stories that Sustain Us: Phaedra Pezzullo's Unique Approach to Sustainability

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:30:53 +0000

The Stories that Sustain Us: Phaedra Pezzullo's Unique Approach to Sustainability Anna Tolette Mon, 03/10/2025 - 14:30

Joe Arney

When you’re trying to change the world — in Phaedra C. Pezzullo’s case, by improving the environment — you need more than scholarly publications to create impact.

It’s why one of her favorite stories involves the fact that her first solo-authored book, Toxic Tourism, inspired the lyrics to a punk-rock song by the band The Holland Dutch.

“Something like that reaches people in more profound ways than just talking about policy or politics,” said Pezzullo, �山�� communication professor in the College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI).

In early 2025, Pezzullo opened CMCI’s Sustainability and Storytelling Lab. And while an academic lab in a formal university setting may sound out of step for someone whose work galvanizes protesters and inspires musicians, she sees it as an exciting next step in the shifting conversation around sustainability.

“The lab is already becoming a space where people from a range of disciplines who study sustainability — students, staff, faculty and community partners — can build relationships and consider the role of storytelling in the field,” she said.

“Something like that reaches people in more profound ways than just talking about policy or politics.”

As with any university lab, creating high-impact learning opportunities for students is key.

Activist Becomes Academic

Pezzullo’s formative educational experiences inspired her teaching philosophy. While a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she interviewed activists and community members in Warren County — known as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement — where landfill toxins were poisoning the water source serving a predominantly Black community.

Listening to their voices and adding her own to the cause helped Pezzullo to see how a single story could unlock millions of dollars to clean a landfill. Cleanup work began as she completed her studies.

“I became hooked on stories,” she said. “When we put storytelling into practice in service of complex problems, like sustainability, we discover why communication is captivating.”

It’s part of why Pezzullo doesn’t limit her storytelling to scholarly publications. Her public-facing work on sustainability includes a podcast, Communicating Care, where she explores sustainability issues like plastic bag bans, disability justice and environmental treaties with other voices from the field.

One of these voices was Emy Kane (IntlAf’13), managing director of Lonely Whale, an organization that raises awareness about and offers alternatives to problematic plastics through partnerships with brands and engagement with companies, scientists and the global youth movement.

“When we put storytelling into practice in service of complex problems, like sustainability, we discover why communication is captivating.”

“What inspired me most about Phaedra is her commitment to sharing stories borne from empathy and action,” said Kane. “I’m thrilled to see my alma mater support her platform and research so that the next generation of leaders are equipped with the stories they need to reimagine the systems that run our world.”

Conversations on the podcast helped inform Pezzullo’s 2023 book, Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care, which won three national book awards. Highlighting success stories, she said, is important to counteract the defeatism and fatalism that typically accompany sustainability stories — and she’s seeing such sentiments rising, even in her classroom.

Oftentimes, in the wake of a victory, “people point out just how much is still wrong with pollution, with our climate, with the world,” she said. “Success isn’t that there won’t be more disasters — it’s that, with more thoughtful choices, future disasters may be less impactful. And that is a more challenging story to tell.”

Science Demands Better Stories

Amid news of rising temperatures, invasive microplastics and melting glaciers, it might seem frivolous to talk about sustainability in terms of good storytelling. But experts argue that we’ve struggled to make progress on environmental issues because the deeply scientific nature of these problems makes it hard for the general public to relate.

Robert Cox — Pezzullo’s mentor at UNC Chapel Hill, where he remains an emeritus professor — credited his protégé with laying the basis for how understandable stories can change the course on climate.

“All the work being done to communicate climate science in the public sphere is now being talked about in terms of relatable stories that demonstrate the impact of climate change,” said Cox, a three-time president of the Sierra Club environmental organization and co-author (with Pezzullo) of a textbook on the discipline. “Those stories resonate far beyond just the pages of an academic article. Phaedra’s work really laid the basis for the importance of narrative, of storytelling, to make complex environmental issues approachable.”

“Success isn’t that there won’t be more disasters — it’s that, with more thoughtful choices, future disasters may be less impactful. And that is a more challenging story to tell.”

In her lab, Pezzullo is searching for that impact by forging partnerships within CMCI and �山�� to bring different kinds of expertise to the challenge of impactful storytelling — something she’s already doing as director of the university’s graduate certificate in environmental justice. She’s lectured at universities across the globe and has collaborated extensively with Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment on climate change. In the meantime, she and her students build digital “story maps” that illustrate how Colorado communities are affected by environmental and climate injustice.

Pursuing Stories with Confidence

Independent reporter Anthony Albidrez (MJour’24) took a foundational course in environmental justice with Pezzullo to better understand how journalism supports sustainability through storytelling and rigorous news reporting standards.

Because of his class experiences, Albidrez turned a course project about a stream cleanup in Honolulu, where he lives, into a report detailing how the local unhoused population was blamed for a mess that, when cleaned, amounted to 16 tons of trash being removed from the Makiki Stream.

“I don’t think a group of homeless people can drag tons of trash into a streambed, but from my research, they were receiving the brunt of the blame,” Albidrez said. “Phaedra’s course helped give me the confidence to go beyond the government numbers and explanations and find the real story.”

Pezzullo’s ability to encourage that sort of intellectual curiosity is what Cox most appreciates about her impact. Though he’s quick to credit her with pushing the boundaries of their field, Cox most admires how Pezzullo has guided the next generation of thinkers as they seek to advance sustainability through storytelling.

“So many of her students are pursuing academic, business and nonprofit work in this area, and that speaks to her strength as a mentor,” Cox said. “She is such an unselfish person in terms of contributing her labor to the field of environmental communication — and that’s the kind of champion a story like this needs.”

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Illustrations by Scott Bakal

Professor Phaedra Pezzullo aims to make sustainability issues more relatable by integrating storytelling into environmental communication.

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Spring 2025

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Breaking the News: A Journalist's Perspective

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:50:53 +0000

Breaking the News: A Journalist's Perspective Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 13:50

Cynthia Barnes

In 2022, Allison Sandza (Jour’09) became the executive producer for the CBS News Streaming Network’s coverage for Washington, D.C. She has also served as a senior producer for Meet the Press, the longest-running show in television history, after stints at PBS and CNN. Born and raised in the capital city, Sandza is committed to reaching an audience that increasingly turns to digital devices for their news.

What led you to journalism?

I grew up in a news household: My parents met in a newsroom before my mom became a lawyer. I grew up with framed newspapers on the walls. So, to say politics and news is in my blood is probably an understatement. It is what I was meant to do.

How do you see streaming platforms evolving for political news coverage, especially in this election cycle?

We are the live and breaking news arm of CBS News. We rush toward the stories, and in this news cycle — especially this political news cycle — it’s just faster than ever.

How did your time at CU and in �山�� affect what you’re doing now and what’s happened in your career?

In my last semester at CU, I took what ended up being my all-time favorite class: a media ethics course. I still think about that class. Every day, every single day, I think, “Is this fair? Is this sourced enough?”

We try to make sure that we are explaining the context and analysis of the whole picture, all while it’s happening in real time. I learned those nuts and bolts in journalism school at CU.

How do you balance breaking timely political coverage with the desire for, as you said, more nuanced, in-depth reporting on complex issues?

Every day, it’s a conversation and an internal struggle. I do think CBS News is unique in that it’s a place that’s known for taking a beat, for taking context into account with every story. It’s the home of 60 Minutes. It’s the home of in-depth reporting and analysis. So I think we’re very careful — we admit in real time when we still don’t know something. That is really the only way to operate. And I think it’s authentic, which audiences now crave.

Any final thoughts?

It’s a privilege to be able to cover this election, to be able to really write this first draft of history. That’s such a journalism cliché, but I think it’s a cliché for a reason.

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to the November 5 election.

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Photo by Hugo Ross/ CBS

In 2022, Allison Sandza (Jour’09) became the executive producer for the CBS News Streaming Network's coverage for Washington, D.C. Here's why she's committed to reaching an audience that increasingly turns to digital devices for their news.

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Fall 2024

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Filming the Frontlines: Jordan Campbell’s Journey Into Ukraine

Anna Tolette — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:44:53 +0000

Filming the Frontlines: Jordan Campbell’s Journey Into Ukraine Anna Tolette Tue, 11/12/2024 - 13:44

Audrea Lin

Journalist, photographer and filmmaker Jordan Campbell (Comm’91) is no stranger to the harshness of international conflict. He has reported from South Sudan, Libya and Iraq for publications like National Geographic and Men's Journal. He also founded Ramro Global, a film production company that documents the work of global health and humanitarian initiatives.

But his latest project, an upcoming documentary titled Ukraine Under Fire, is a personal labor — the origins and experiences of which are unlike anything he’s ever undertaken.

International storytelling

After graduating from CU, Campbell started working with outdoor company Marmot as a communications director. Always one to seek out new and interesting perspectives, he befriended a few of the company’s international representatives, becoming close to his Ukrainian colleagues Iryna Karagan and Pavlo Vasianoych.

Over the course of the next decade, Campbell found himself drawn to bigger stories, fueled by his university training in storytelling, geopolitics and political science. His career segued into global journalism and film.

Still, he remained friends with Karagan and Vasianoych. And when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he quickly reached out to Karagan. Concerned, he asked if she would flee. Karagan’s answer was resolved: Not only was she staying put, she was staying “to defend our country.”

Her determination highlighted what Campbell saw as “the most incredible injustice, a David and Goliath story — of resistance, resilience and the quest for freedom, democracy and European integration.”

Documenting conflict

A month later, Campbell crossed the Polish border heading to Kiev, his camera in tow and post-apocalyptic sirens blaring. “It was a ghost town,” he remembered. In areas near Bucha that Ukrainian soldiers had just liberated from Russia, he saw evidence of violence alongside the burnt remains of tanks, buildings and cars.

He returned again that summer and embedded at a military hospital in Pokrovsk, a grisly scene of battered and injured soldiers. “It was a life-changing event,” he said. Campbell decided that the footage he shot would become part of a film, Ukraine Under Fire, that documents Russia’s invasion and Ukraine’s resilience, and includes Karagan and Vasianoych as subjects.

Between visits, Campbell spoke up about what he had seen. At the U.S. Senate Building, he presented before an audience of global politicians during the Parliamentary Intelligence Security Forum, speaking about Russia’s use of cluster bombs on civilian targets and what he believed was evidence of war crimes and genocide.

“What he’s doing by humanizing the conflict encourages people to take an interest and support the cause of the Ukrainian people,” said Dan Martinez, a retired Foreign Service Officer and Ramro Global advisory board member who facilitated Campbell’s participation.

Despite the inherent risks, Campbell continued to return to Ukraine, mitigating the dangers by following a few simple rules: “Make the best decisions you can possibly make, given where you are and who you're with,” and, “Pick the people you're going to be with very carefully.”

One such person he shadowed was Peter Fouché, a South African combat medic. During a frigid morning in early 2023, the two men patrolled a quiet hamlet near the front line, peering up at the sky for incoming drones. Fouché, burly and hardened, a Rambo-like figure cradling an AK-47, emerged from the broken shell of a little stone house. Then, he broke into tears.

“The West will be remembered for what they have done or have not done in this war,” Fouché said, staring directly into Campbell’s lens.

Capturing reality

The summer of 2023 was Campbell’s fifth visit to Ukraine — one he now describes as “disastrous.” He was with Fouché at the time, and their nerves were shot from exhaustion, PTSD and a relentless, soggy heat. He didn’t know it, but it would be the last time he’d see his friend.

As Campbell made plans to return, to embed with Fouché and his Ukrainian colleague Tatyana Millard, he learned that the two were killed near the frontlines. The duo were evacuating injured soldiers from the combat zone “like a superhero team,” Campbell said.

“That’s Peter’s essence right there,” Campbell remarked weeks after Fouché’s death, while reflecting on the footage he captured of the heroic medic and his piercing statement about the West’s role in the war. “That's the power of documentary film. It's that close.”

Campbell’s documentary, Ukraine Under Fire, is set to release in December 2024.

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Photos courtesy Oleg Avilov

In 2022, journalist, photographer and filmmaker Jordan Campbell (Comm’91) headed to Ukraine to report on the war. Now, he’s sharing his experiences in his documentary, Ukraine Under Fire.

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Fall 2024

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Amping Up Radio 1190 at �山��

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Amping Up Radio 1190 at �山�� Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/16/2024 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

Radio 1190 KVCU, �山��’s volunteer-based student radio station, has been broadcasting on campus since November 1998. Recently, it’s been gaining attention on a national scale.

In less than two years, Jack Armstrong (StComm’25), news director for Radio 1190, has grown the student radio team from three people to 40 active volunteers, amping up the broadcast from weekly to daily. The station now features daily news programming, in addition to shows, music and podcasts.

“I had a drive to make something much larger than what we currently had at the station,” said Armstrong, who will be a senior in the fall.

In March, the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System honored the radio station with two national awards: Best Public Affairs Program and the 2024 Best News Director.

“It was validating that the program I put together worked,” Armstrong said. “I want working for Radio 1190 to be a coveted learning experience for students — and one that employers will see and value.”

When he graduates, Armstrong plans to continue in a new capacity with the station, which is located in the University Memorial Center on campus.

“I will consult with the second news director to make sure they’re beginning on the right path,” he said. “After that, I’m choosing to promote myself to the role of listener.”

Listen to the station at 1190 AM or at 1190.radio.

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Photo by Patrick Campbell

Radio 1190 KVCU, �山��’s volunteer-based student radio station, has been broadcasting on campus since November 1998. Recently, it’s been gaining attention on a national scale.

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Communication & Media

The Stories that Sustain Us: Phaedra Pezzullo's Unique Approach to Sustainability

Activist Becomes Academic

Science Demands Better Stories

Pursuing Stories with Confidence

Off

Breaking the News: A Journalist's Perspective

What led you to journalism?

How do you see streaming platforms evolving for political news coverage, especially in this election cycle?

How did your time at CU and in �山���� affect what you’re doing now and what’s happened in your career?

How do you balance breaking timely political coverage with the desire for, as you said, more nuanced, in-depth reporting on complex issues?

Any final thoughts?

Off

Filming the Frontlines: Jordan Campbell’s Journey Into Ukraine

International storytelling

Documenting conflict

Capturing reality

Off

Amping Up Radio 1190 at �山����

Off

How did your time at CU and in �山�� affect what you’re doing now and what’s happened in your career?

Amping Up Radio 1190 at �山��