Caroline Dignard (Photo: Kelly Culnan)

health policy

Alum Receives 2024 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellowship

Caroline Dignard, a recent MPH graduate and a former Public Health Post fellow, will travel to Nunavut in northern Canada this summer to report on indigenous food sovereignty.

Caroline Dignard, a 2024 Master of Public Health graduate and a former Public Health Post fellow, has been named a 2024 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow.

The Pulitzer fellowship program is part of a long-standing collaboration between the School of Public Health, the Boston University College of Communication, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting through BU’s Program for Global Health Storytelling. Pulitzer fellows explore the intersection of journalism and public health while developing a multimedia project on an underreported health crisis. This year, Dignard was selected along with COM student Lauren Fox, who will be reporting from the Khumbu region of Nepal on the efforts of sherpas to adapt the mountaineering industry to the effects of climate change.

Dignard grew up in Toronto but intends to travel further north than she has ever been before to report on indigenous food sovereignty in Iqaluit, the remote and sparsely populated capital city of Nunavut, Canada’s largest and northernmost territory.

“It can be an unforgiving climate,” says Dignard of her destination, which has been a traditional fishing site for the Inuit and today is home to nearly 7,500 residents, just over half of whom are indigenous. “Food insecurity is huge issue in the North just because it is so expensive to bring in food. Everything needs to be flown in. Some things can be taken by boat, but only some months of the year because the sea is often frozen over with ice. There have been many programs run by the Canadian government, like Nutrition North Canada, that have tried to address high costs and they just have not meaningfully lowered grocery prices.”

Without roads or rail to connect the city to the mainland, Iqaluit’s grocery stores cover high food transportation costs by marking up prices. For example, a TikTok video from creator and Iqaluit resident Kyra Kilabuk went viral in 2022 for showing that a single roll of aluminum foil costs $70 and a single box of cereal nearly $20 at her local grocery store. This is one reason Iqaluit is one of 124 northern communities eligible for Nutrition North Canada, a government program that aims to subsidize nutritious food and essentials to combat food insecurity.

But rather than harp on hunger and suffering, Dignard aims to elevate indigenous voices and highlight local practices that are working, such as efforts to keep traditional hunting knowledge alive through educational and employment programs. She credits her grandmother, an experienced grief counselor who has supported indigenous people to process loss and trauma, with helping her come up with the idea.

“I feel good about focusing on solutions rather than problems. I am hoping that also makes [the story] more interesting to more people,” says Dignard, who would like to pitch the piece to The Globe and Mail, Canada’s major national newspaper, in addition to publishing to the Pulitzer Center website. “The grant allows me to do something I would never get to do otherwise and talk to people I probably would not otherwise. I am very grateful, and I really want to do a good job.”

An aspiring health journalist with a particular interest in health policy, Dignard was initially torn as to whether she should pursue advanced studies in journalism or in public health after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in biology with a concentration in public health from Williams College. But she was drawn to SPH, she says, by the prospect of a fellowship at Public Health Post (PHP), the School’s daily population health magazine.

“I was really excited about a place where I could get started and have a dedicated team of editors who knew where I was coming from and were totally on board to help introduce me to writing in this style, and then also to help me get better,” says Dignard, who completed the yearlong fellowship with PHP and graduated with dual certificates in epidemiology and biostatistics and health law, policy, and management in May. While a PHP fellow, she wrote a variety of popular pieces on subjects ranging from brain injuries in ice hockey to toxins in receipt paper. Meanwhile, her academic achievements earned her the Allan R. Meyers Memorial Award for Excellence in Health Policy & Management.

Barbara Espinosa Barrera (SPH’23), another former Public Health Post fellow, received the Pulitzer fellowship last year. She used the associated funds, training, and mentorship to return to the region of Ecuador where she grew up, near the Cotopaxi volcano, and reported on local efforts to mitigate the effects of future volcanic eruptions.

Incoming on-campus MPH students interested in the Public Health Post Fellowship may find more information about the program here and are encouraged to send any questions about the program to Mallory Bersi, managing editor, at mbersi@bu.edu.