
Today she covers social and environmental issues in the Southwest and is a regular columnist and op-ed commentator.
Visit her website (Judaism in Albuquerque) and read her work (Our Prayers are Heard), and hear her radio commentaries on Israeli Palestinian Conflict Resolution.
Schmidt started out as a photojournalist in Chicago for Time Magazine and others. Her photo essays on the city at night published by the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine garnered her a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. Her art photography monograph, The Chicago Exhibition, Melrose/LA, achieved international notoriety, and her early experiences as a photojournalist covering the civil war in El Salvador continue to inform her work today.
In 2012 she was the recipient of 4 top journalism awards, notably for her coverage of a hate crime where a Navajo youth was branded with a swastika. She has designed and illustrated four books working with Navajo author Frank Morgan, and was Volunteer of the Year for the ArtsGenesis youth program in the Pascua Yaqui community run by Jewish Renewal artist Carol Kestler. Schmidt is a member of the board of the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society and is a member of the American Jewish Press Association.
View bio on LinkedIn and follow on Twitter.
"Intention means believing and trusting you occupy a special place in the universe." - Diane Schmidt
"Music puts me in touch with my singing heart instead of my searing pain." - Diane Schmidt
"Being a part of this unique project gives me a new sense (and concept!) of community. " - Diane Schmidt