John Sutter

John D. Sutter is an award-winning environmental journalist, documentary filmmaker, and media educator with more than 15 years of experience in climate storytelling and investigative reporting. His work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Peabody Award, and the Foreign Press Association Media Award. He has also received two national EMMY nominations—for environmental reporting and for new approaches to documentary storytelling.

Before joining the University of Oregon, Sutter was the Ted Turner Professor of Environmental Media at The George Washington University. He spent over a decade at CNN, where he covered climate change and human rights issues, helped lead coverage of major events, including the Paris climate talks, and served most recently serving as a senior investigative reporter and climate contributor. His independent work has been supported by the National Geographic Society, Sundance Institute, Sandbox Films, the Catapult Film Fund, and the National Science Foundation, among others.

Sutter has held prestigious fellowships at Harvard University (Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowship) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Knight Science Journalism Fellowship). In addition to his role as an assistant professor, he is on the leadership team of the Center for Science Communication Research at the University of Oregon. His teaching and research focus on environmental media, climate media, climate journalism, environmental cinema, the history of climate storytelling, science communication, longform nonfiction storytelling and investigative reporting.

Sutter also regularly leads workshops and trainings on multimedia journalism, climate communication, op-ed writing, and media strategy for organizations such as the Poynter Institute, The Carter Center, AFP, and PBS Digital.