Joel P. Engardio

Joel P. Engardio (born September 17, 1972) is a writer, documentary filmmaker and civil liberties advocate. He has worked as a journalist in print, television and independent film. He currently works for the American Civil Liberties Union, using reporting principles to find plaintiffs with compelling stories that can shape public opinion. He also produces short online videos about ACLU issues that focus on story-telling. [http://www.knocking.org/Press-DetroitNews.html]

Career

Engardio's byline has appeared in the "Los Angeles Times", "New York Times", "Boston Globe", "San Francisco Chronicle", "Christian Science Monitor", "San Francisco Weekly", "USA Today", "Newsweek" and "P.O.V." magazine. In radio, he has written essays broadcast on NPR’s "This I Believe" series [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16505529] and KQED-San Francisco’s "Perspectives". In television, Engardio worked as an associate producer for ABC News at the news magazine "20/20" and the network's documentary unit, "Turning Point". Engardio wrote, narrated and directed "Knocking", a documentary on Jehovah’s Witnesses that was nationally broadcast in the United States on the PBS series "Independent Lens" in 2007. [http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/knocking/] "Knocking" was also broadcast in Australia, Canada, Greece and Israel and released on DVD in English, Spanish and Portuguese. [http://www.knocking.org/]

Awards

Engardio was the recipient of the 2000 National Press Foundation award for science writing. In 2003, his opinion writing was recognized with a first place award by the Society of Professional Journalists in Northern California. He was a finalist for the University of Missouri-Columbia 1999 national writing award in multicultural journalism. Engardio's film "Knocking" was named Best Documentary at the 2006 USA Film Festival.

Background

Engardio graduated from Michigan State University, majoring in journalism and history. He was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan where his mom was the only member of a large Italian Catholic family to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses. [http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/05/opening_the_doo.html] Engardio currently lives in New York.

References

Newsweek article"Belief Watch: Witness" by Lisa Miller, May 28, 2007, page 13

http://www.newsweek.com/id/34541

San Francisco Chronicle article"Finding my religion" by David Ian Miller, May 14, 2007

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/05/14/findrelig.DTL&hw=engardio&sn=001&sc=1000

Detroit News article"Former reporter digs up stories of anti-gay bias" by Deb Price, April 9, 2007, page 9A

http://www.knocking.org/Press-DetroitNews.html

USA Today article"Opening the door for us all" by Joel P. Engardio, May 7, 2007, page 13A

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/05/opening_the_doo.html

NPR broadcast"Learning True Tolerance" by Joel P. Engardio, November 25, 2007, Weekend Edition Sunday

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16505529

KQED broadcast"The Silent Epidemic" by Joel P. Engardio, January 3, 2003, Perspectives

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R301090737

Air America Radio broadcast"State of Belief" with Rev. Welton Grandy, May 20, 2007

http://airamerica.com/stateofbelief/node/447

Washington Post/Newsweek, Guest Voice, On Faith column

"Witness to separation of church and state" by Joel P. Engardio, June 7, 2007

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2007/06/true_witnesses_to_separation_o.html

Entertainment Weekly article"TV: What to Watch" May 25, 2007, page 78

http://www.knocking.org/Press-EW.html

Christianity Today movie review"Fundamentalism and Freedom" by David Neff, May 22, 2007

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/fundamentalismfreedom.html

External links

http://www.knocking.org/

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/knocking/

http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/lgbt/enda_20070917.pdf

http://blog.aclu.org/2008/06/25/supreme-court-v-american-idol/