ICT President Karen Lincoln Michel was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Marquette University. The recognition is for her distinguished career as a reporter, editor, and as the chief executive officer for IndiJ Public Media., the nonprofit news company that owns ICT.
Marquette University President Michael R. Lovell conferred the honor Thursday on the Milwaukee campus, introducing Dr. Michel as a “champion of diversity voices and a Marquette alumni.” Ho-Chunk artist Stephanie Swallow designed and created the blue and gold ceremonial stole that she wore, followed by a formal hooded ceremony in her academic robe.
The processional included honor songs by the Thundercloud Singers and a posting of the color by a Ho-Chunk honor guard that included Ho-Chunk President Marlon WhiteEagle and his brothers Marcus WhiteEagle and Joseph WhiteEagle. Dozens of family members and friends were present at the ceremony.
In her keynote speech, Michel said she begins every day with a daily reflection, prayer and visioning. “In that time I imagine my day, and my world, as I would like to see it,” she said. “In all of my days of my daily practice I never envisioned an honor like this would be handed to me. And in such a beautiful ceremony as this one.”
Michel joined what was then Indian Country Today in January of 2020. The news organization was owned by the National Congress of American Indians. The goal her first year was to raise $2.5 million and build a business team for the nonprofit news organization. One of her first challenges was only a few months after taking office and that was restructuring Indian Country Today as an independent nonprofit. That ownership change happened in March of 2021 and IndiJ Public Media was formed with Michel as the president and the chief executive officer.
IndiJ Public Media has had remarkable growth under Michel’s leadership. It now has two major news gathering operations, the digital site ICT, and the daily broadcast, the ICT Newscast with Aliayah Chavez.
She is currently working on a plan to staff nine bureaus across the country and ICT – up from two bureaus now. The nonprofit news company also had a record year for revenue and passed its stretch goal for classified and other advertising.”We also raised more than $300,000 in individual contributions which is awesome when you think our average donation is about $35,” she said. “This all keeps our content free which is really important to us.”
Michel said IndiJ Public Media is building a different kind of news organization, one built on Indigenous values. She said there are seven that the board codified as part of the mission: Respect, humility, integrity, wisdom, compassion, courage, and truth.
“I feel truly blessed to embrace those values that our ancestors wanted to instill in us,” she said. “And to use those values as a foundation for both my personal and my professional life.”
