Journalism adjunct professor Barry Yeoman’s story “Reclamation Project” was published in Harvard Public Health Magazine on May 19, 2023. It’s about Devon Parfait, the 25-year-old chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, who is working to prevent coastal land loss on the Louisiana Gulf Coast from harming his tribe.

“I’ve been covering Native American tribes in Louisiana since the 2010 BP oil spill, and feel compelled to continue writing about them, because they are at the front lines of our climate crisis,” says Yeoman. “They have been brainstorming about, and working toward, solutions to the many problems caused by sea-level rise and land loss, and their accumulated wisdom is essential if we are to survive the next century.”

When Yeoman began working on ways to continue writing about these communities and their experiences with the climate crisis, he knew he would need invested partners. “One of the keys to the future of longform journalism is media partnerships,” Yeoman explains. “In this case, I introduced the editors of Harvard Public Health Magazine and the Food & Environment Reporting Network. They brought complementary sets of expertise, and together came up with the resources for me to visit Louisiana twice and give the story the time it deserved.”

To read Yeoman’s full story, please click here.