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on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)

Eleanor Bennett

Morning Edition Anchor and Reporter

Eleanor is an award-winning journalist who currently serves as “the voice” of Aspen Public Radio during "Morning Edition." She has reported on a wide range of topics in her community, including the impacts of federal immigration policies on local DACA recipients, creative efforts to solve the valley's affordable housing crisis, and hungry goats fighting climate change across the West through targeted grazing. Connecting with people from all walks of life and creating empathic spaces for them to tell their stories fuels her work.

Her reporting has been featured on NPR and The World, and she has received several statewide, regional and national awards including a 2023 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for her feature on an immigrant family who cut down their first Christmas tree together. She earned “Best News Feature” three years in a row from the Colorado Broadcasters Association, including for her stories about an education initiative to bring more Ute history and cross-cultural conversations to local schools and a citizen-science project to help understand how climate change is impacting birds. She also contributed to the award-winning series, "In The Woods: Trees and Climate Change in the Roaring Fork Valley.

As a Morning Edition anchor, Eleanor pioneered the station’s award-winning "Outdoor Report," which highlights local flora and fauna, recreation opportunities and environmental causes in the Valley, and hosts the "Aspen Public Radio Newscast," a podcast for locals on-the-go.

Growing up in the Valley listening to KAJX in her parents’ car on the way to school, Eleanor learned the power and urgency of community storytelling. She was further captivated by the medium while interning at Aspen Public Radio after graduating from Middlebury College in 2015. From there, she covered issues of climate justice and women's empowerment for SiriusXM Radio in New York City. Eleanor also had the opportunity to work with French photographer and muralist JR to record the dreams, hopes and fears of 1,500 New Yorkers for an interactive audio-visual exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.

In 2019, Eleanor returned home to serve as producer of Aspen Public Radio’s teen-focused podcast, "Gen Z Tea." She started working full-time for the station in August 2020. Eleanor is delighted to be home in the Rocky Mountains working to shine a light on the critical issues and community voices that shape our Valley.