About Denali ↓

Denali Sagner is a reporter for the Flathead Beacon, an award-winning, independent newsroom in northwest Montana, where she covers politics and education. She’s reported on everything from Jon Tester’s folksy fight for reelection to the changing nature of the state’s political landscape to administrative misconduct in local schools.

The Montana Newspaper Association in 2022 and 2023 named Denali’s reporting on rural youth homelessness and teacher shortages “best education coverage” in the state. Through a fellowship from the Education Writers Association, she recently produced “The Rural College Project,” a five-part series exploring how Montana’s rural and tribal colleges are adapting to the state’s changing economy. 

Before moving to Montana, Denali lived in Philadelphia, where she studied American history at the University of Pennsylvania and reported on Philadelphia’s powerful institutions for Philadelphia magazine and WHYY’s Billy Penn. At Penn, Denali managed 34th Street Magazine’s investigative reporting team. Alongside a colleague from the student paper, she conducted a months-long investigation into Dr. Albert Kligman’s unethical medical experiments, for which she received recognition from the Associated Collegiate Press, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and the Pennsylvania News Media Association.