Dani Newsum

Dani Newsum is the communications and education officer for the Chinook Fund, a Colorado community foundation committed to funding and supporting organizations working to implement social justice values and policies in the public and private sectors. Newsum also teaches in the history and political science departments at the University of Colorado, Denver.

An attorney, Newsum is a former civil rights and labor litigator in the office of the Colorado Attorney General, and as Human Rights Director for City of Boulder, was the city's expert legal witness in the battle against Amendment 2, the 1992 anti-gay civil rights amendment.

Newsum has an extensive involvement in politics and various media. She served as state Senate Majority media director in 2000, and directed communications for the Colorado Democratic Party in 2001.

Currently Newsum is a regular panelist on KBDI's acclaimed political affairs television program, COLORADO INSIDE OUT. Newsum also writes blog columns for the DenverPost.com.

In 1996, Westword named Newsum the "best new talk show host in Denver" for her work on radio stations KOA and KHOW. That same year the Colorado Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) named her the CABJ "Radio Journalist of the Year." In 1998, Newsum received the Colorado American Civil Liberties Union's media award, and was named a "Media Trailblazer" by the American Association of University Women.