John Sharify is one of the most honored broadcast journalists in the country. A 79-time Emmy award winner, he received the 2021 DuPont Columbia Award, the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, for his Death with Dignity documentary Bob's Choice. Sharify is the Atwood Chair in Journalism and Public Communications at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Sharify has been honored with nine National Edward R. Murrow awards, including four National Murrow awards for writing, and was twice selected as the National Press Photographers Association Reporter of the Year (ROY) for his work at KING 5 News in Seattle. Sharify is a graduate of Princeton University. He has a Master of Fine Arts degree in film directing from Columbia University, where he studied under Oscar-winning film director Milos Forman. His passion for storytelling has taken him around the world as he presents workshops on the craft of video storytelling in newsrooms and other venues, like his 2012 Ted Talk about his documentary, Climb of a Lifetime.