Jennifer McDaniels
eastern Kentucky regional reporterJennifer McDaniels is a 25-year award-winning print journalist from southeastern, Kentucky. From full-time newspaper work to freelancing, Jennifer has become widely known and acclaimed for her reporting on the issues facing southeastern Kentucky, a remote yet beautiful region of the Commonwealth that has its own unique story to tell – primarily how coalfield counties are determined to both survive and thrive in the wake of coal’s demise and how the resilience and grit of mountain folk are seeing the area through challenging economic times and destructive natural disasters common in the Appalachians like flash flooding.
A multiple Kentucky Press Association award winner, Jennifer has received recognition throughout the state for her journalistic pieces about southeast Kentucky. In recent years, she won a first-place extended news series award for her coverage of the catastrophic eastern Kentucky flood of 2022. Her writing even landed her a surprise first-place sports story award for her chronicles following an underestimated high school basketball team, the Harlan County Black Bears, making a historic run at the state championship. Both colleagues and readers say it’s Jennifer’s storytelling ability and focus on people and their individual plights that make her a compelling journalist. She is a strong advocate for rural journalism, reporting on issues, events, and the people who have particular needs in a particular area and is a champion for facilitating small-town community spirit. Writing about both the challenges and the triumphs of mountain communities in southeastern Kentucky has made her become known as an “Appalachian Journalist.“
Jennifer obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Carson-Newman College and her Masters in Communications from Morehead State University. She got her start in newspaper reporting at the Harlan Enterprise, but has written for a multitude of publications in southeast, Kentucky. She enjoys photography, Victorian English history and literature, hiking, lively discussions and music around a campfire, and cooking meals for friends and family gathered around large tables with recipes collected from the cherished cookbooks of her late mother, Jeanette, and late grandmother, Roxie. She is immensely proud to be from a long line of strong mountain women.
-
Coal mining is indelibly woven into the fabric of daily life in the mountains of southeast Kentucky, but a decline in the coal industry and an associated migration away from mining towns is prompting new efforts to preserve what once was for the next generation. Harlan County is a prime example. -
Seniors living in Eastern Kentucky have joined the concerns of other seniors throughout the state who are dependent upon home delivery meals and who are afraid of losing the much- needed service. -
Citizens of London are still pressing authorities for answers in the Doug Harless case with continued protests in the community. One was held on Saturday September 13th in front of the London City Police Department, the agency whose officers responded to the wrong address last December in a search warrant raid, fatally shooting Harless. WUKY eastern Kentucky regional reporter Jennifer McDaniels has more on the story. -
It was a day of mystery, discovery, and fun recently, as the first-ever Southeast Kentucky Bigfoot Conference was held at the London Community Center. -
Television viewers in Appalachia said a final goodbye to a beloved local celebrity and friend. WYMT chief weather forecaster Brandon Robinson was laid to rest Wednesday after a courageous battle with brain cancer. WUKY eastern Kentucky regional reporter Jennifer McDaniels has the story. -
The 2025 Shaping Our Appalachian Region Summit came to an enthusiastic end in Corbin on Friday, with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers sharing the main stage to announce nearly $26 million in state funding for the economic development of East Kentucky. WUKY eastern Kentucky regional reporter Jennifer McDaniels has this wrap-up. -
There was a poet as well as a politician who stepped behind the SOAR speaker's podium in Corbin. Thursday's summit keynote speaker, Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans and senior White House adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, spoke of East Kentucky and the resiliency of its people. -
The 11th annual Shaping our Appalachian Region summit is under way in Corbin and we sent our new eastern Kentucky regional reporter Jennifer McDaniels to check it out. She spoke with SOAR chief operating officer Joshua Ball.
