Former WWG student researcher Jana Rose Schleis is a reporter at KBIA, Mid-Missouri’s public radio station, and an instructor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Schleis reports on energy, utilities, infrastructure, agriculture and rural communities.
Each fall Schleis reports and produces The Next Harvest, a news series about potential solutions to agriculture’s environmental and economic challenges. The Next Harvest focuses on regenerative agriculture, a farming method that prioritizes reviving ecosystems. As a WWG researcher, Schleis was introduced to regenerative agriculture while working with Michael Grunwald as he wrote “We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.”
Season one of The Next Harvest was recognized by the Radio Television Digital News Association with a regional and national Edward R. Murrow Award in the News Series category. The inaugural 7-part installment also received a first-place national award from the Public Media Journalists Association in the Series category.
During her time with WWG, Schleis was a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism studying investigative journalism, government reporting and public policy. She was also the morning newscaster for KBIA. Previously, Schleis worked at Wisconsin Public Radio for five years as a production assistant, producer of The Morning Show, and finally network producer for The Ideas Network. Schleis earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication from The University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. She’s from a small Wisconsin town located on the Lake Michigan shore.
