Higher education reporter Rachel Livinal received a George F. Gruner Journalism Award on Friday during a ceremony held at Fresno State.
Livinal, who reports for KVPR and The Merced FOCUS, received the Best Feature Story Award in the Large Dailies/Digital category for her investigative story about how audits show thousands of items and remains belonging to Native American tribes are still being held by California’s public universities, including several in the San Joaquin Valley.
A graduate of Cal State Long Beach who is also a Merced College alum, Livinal began her journalism career in July 2023 reporting for KVPR and The Merced FOCUS as part of a joint partnership made possible by The Central Valley Journalism Collaborative.
While attending CSU Long Beach, Livinal worked as an production director and podcast editor for the university’s radio station and student-run magazine.
Livinal has also been a fellow of NPR’s Next Gen Radio and her work has received several awards including a Mark of Excellence award from the Society of Professional Journalists for Best Conversational Podcast.
The Merced FOCUS wasn’t the only nonprofit newsroom to achieve honors on Friday. Fresnoland, which is a partner of The Merced FOCUS and Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, received three awards.
Every year the awards honor the late George Gruner, a former executive editor of The Fresno Bee.
The McClatchy Company established the Gruner awards in 1989 and the Department of Media, Communications and Journalism administers the competition and co-hosts the awards banquet, according to the Fresno State website.