Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Executive Director

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear now serves as the executive director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck and the Fort Berthold Reservation. The IMFA publishes news online at Buffalosfire.com. The project assists the public in making informed news choices within a free and responsible press. Prior to founding the IMFA, Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press.

She has won journalism awards from military, mainstream, university, and Native press organizations. Some of those awards include: a Silver Telly Award for video; Paul Savanuck Military Print Journalist of the Year; Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest award for education reporting; the Thomas C. Sorensen Award for Distinguished Nebraska Journalism; Columbia University's "Let's Do It Better" award for a portfolio of work and column writing; and the Native American Journalists Association award for column writing.

Jodi holds the distinction of receiving both Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships from Harvard and Stanford universities, respectively.

She also was named a 2020 Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT. She also received a Bush Fellowship in 2021 in recognition of her leadership and for her vision and commitment to helping independent media better serve Indigenous communities.

Jodi’s writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. In 2023, Jodi was selected to serve as a national board member of the Society of Professional Journalists, an organization that represents about 6,000 journalists. She is also an SPJ Foundation board member and now serves as chairperson of SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee. Prior to returning home to North Dakota, Jodi reported on Native issues for Lee Enterprises for more than a decade. Her last reporting post was with the Missoulian in Missoula, Montana.