Ryan Heinsius
News Director & Managing EditorRyan Heinsius joined the KNAU newsroom as executive producer in 2013 and was named news director and managing editor in 2024. As a reporter, he has covered a broad range of stories from local, state and tribal politics to education, economy, energy and public lands issues, and frequently interviews internationally known and regional musicians. Ryan is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a Public Media Journalists Association Award winner, and a frequent contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and national newscast. He's been featured on WBUR's Here & Now among other programs.
Before making the leap to public radio, Ryan spent more than a decade in print media as the editor of an alternative weekly paper. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University in political science and journalism and has also returned to teach at his alma mater.
Ryan is a Flagstaff-based musician and has performed and recorded with many bands in the Southwest. He spends as much time as possible hiking, running and cycling the amazing terrain of northern Arizona and beyond.
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The SAVE America Act would require voters to prove their citizenship in person to register to vote. But tribal leaders say it would create barriers to voting for Indigenous populations. KNAU speaks with Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley about the proposal. -
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an attempt by Arizona Republicans to nullify a nearly million-acre national monument near the Grand Canyon. -
The Trump administration plans to move the headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service to Salt Lake City as the U.S. Department of Agriculture begins a sweeping restructuring of the agency. -
For decades, Joy Harjo has challenged what it means to be a poet. The multifaceted author, musician and playwright was the first Indigenous person to serve as U.S. poet laureate. -
Numerous conservation groups and elected officials are calling on the U.S. Senate to reject President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management. -
Arizona’s three public universities have developed a new tool to help environmental officials find and cleanup abandoned mines in the state. -
A grand jury in Coconino County has indicted a Flagstaff man on 60 felony counts related to a shootout and deadly DPS helicopter crash last week. -
Arizona’s U.S. senators plan to introduce a bill designed to fast-track reconstruction on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park following last summer’s Dragon Bravo and White Sage fires. -
For the last year the level of arsenic in the City of Williams’ drinking water was nearly double the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s safety standards. -
The Navajo Nation Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on the federal government to formally recognize tribal identification and the political status of its members.
