About

Lauren Frohne is a visual journalist producing award-winning, innovative video stories, documentary films, and interactive digital projects. She is currently the Lead Video Journalist at The Seattle Times – NPPA Multimedia Team of the year in 2020 and 2021 and winner of the 2019 Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence.

She directs, films and edits character-driven news, feature and investigative video stories with a particular interest in reporting deeply personal stories that explore universal themes and reach across audiences. Her in-depth work often explores race and gender, the environment and also celebrates the ways we connect as humans and communities. As lead video journalist, she also guides coverage, determines resource allocation for video projects and provides feedback to elevate our storytelling.

Before joining The Seattle Times in 2014, she was the multimedia producer for the Open Society Foundations, a human rights and social justice organization working with some of the most marginalized populations in the world. In that role, she led visual projects like “Bringing Justice to Health,” which explored the intersection of health and justice, and filmed and edited projects about Roma people in Europe and about early childhood education in Liberia. Before that, she was a multimedia producer for The Boston Globe, where she worked on short video stories and award-winning digital projects.

As a Roy H. Park Fellow, she earned a master’s degree in journalism with a focus on visual communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010, where she worked on innovative digital projects like Powering a Nation (2010) and Living Galapagos (2019). She is a 2020 graduate of Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media, a 2019 participant in the Freedom Forum Institute’s PowerShift Project and a 2018 graduate of the ASNE Emerging Leaders Institute. She is also licensed to pilot small unmanned aircraft systems and drone cameras.

Lauren is regularly invited to teach at multimedia storytelling and video production workshops for students and professionals — including WKU’s Mountain Workshops and the Story Arc cinematic journalism workshop — and has been a faculty member of the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop since 2013. She speaks on the topics of visual journalism and diversity and inclusion at journalism conferences and events all over the country, including the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar in both 2014 and 2018 and the NPPA Women in Visual Journalism conference. Additionally, she co-founded the Visual Storytellers Community Fund, a scholarship for emerging visual journalists at UNC-Chapel Hill that is fully funded by young alumni.

CONTACT

E-mail: lauren.frohne@gmail.com

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

SPEAKING & TEACHING

FEATURED IN MEDIA

FILM FESTIVALS

Official Selection, 2024 Portland EcoFilm Festival, “To Heal a Forest”

Official Selection, Friday Harbor Documentary Film Festival 2023, “Finding Lillian”

Official Selection, Seattle Asian American Film Festival, “The Legacy of Linc’s Tackle”

Official Selection, Portland Film Festival, “The Legacy of Linc’s Tackle”

Best Director, Short Documentary, Tacoma Film Festival, “The Legacy of Linc’s Tackle”

Official Selection, Olympia Film Festival, “The Legacy of Linc’s Tackle”

Official Selection, 2010 Carrboro Film Festival, “Spilling Over”

SELECT FILM FESTIVALS, AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Winner, 2025 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, Seattle Times investigation of the systems failing teenagers addicted to fentanyl

First Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Portfolio – Individual Video

Second Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Portfolio – Team Video, The Seattle Times

Second Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Portfolio – Visual Presentation, The Seattle Times

First Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, News & Issue – Individual Video, “Meet the older activists hoping to save Washington’s legacy forests”

First Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Race & Identity – Individual Video, “A voice for the salmon: Boldt decision goes deeper than the right to fish”

First Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Culture, Sports & Science – Team Video, “Ten years after Oso landslide, devastated site memorializes victims, teaches about risks”

First Place, 2025 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Culture, Sports & Science – Visual Presentation, “FOREST FEUD: Washington’s fight over the old growth of tomorrow”

Award of Excellence, 82nd Pictures of the Year International (2025), Documentary Daily Life, “Party in the ropes: Seattle double Dutch jump rope group turns outdoor fitness into a party”

First Place, Best of the West 2025, Video Storytelling, The Seattle Times, “A voice for the salmon: Boldt decision goes deeper than the right to fish”

Winner, Northwest Regional Emmy Awards 2024, Historical/Cultural – Long Form Content, “Finding Lillian: The Lost Patients of Washington’s Abandoned Mental Hospital”

Award of Excellence, 81st Pictures of the Year International (2024), Documentary Storyteller of the Year

Finalist, 81st Pictures of the Year International (2024), Documentary Journalism, “Finding Lillian: The Lost Patients of Washington’s Abandoned Mental Hospital”

Award of Excellence, 81st Pictures of the Year International (2024), Online Storytelling: Daily Life, “Salmon Parks: Inside a Movement to Conserve Pacific Northwest Old Growth”

Award of Excellence, 81st Pictures of the Year International (2024), Documentary Daily Life, “Stop, Flop and Roll: TikTok Star Charms Seattle Cat Community”

Winner, 2023 Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting, National Press Foundation

First Place, 2024 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Portfolio – Online Video Team, The Seattle Times

Third Place, 2024 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Documentary Editor of the Year, Lauren Frohne – “Finding Lillian: The Lost Patients of Washington’s Abandoned Mental Hospital“

Third Place, 2024 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Documentary Short Form, “Finding Lillian: The Lost Patients of Washington’s Abandoned Mental Hospital“

Winner, Northwest Regional Emmy Awards 2023, Environment/Science – Long Form Content, “Army’s ‘Forever Chemicals'”

First Place, 2023 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Race and Identity – Individual, “Connecting with the land through camas”

First Place, 2023 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Culture, Sports and Science – Team, “The body you have”

Second Place, 2023 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Online Video Team Portfolio, The Seattle Times

Finalist, 2023 Online Journalism Awards, Digital Video Storytelling, “To Heal a Forest”

Second Place, 2023 National Headliner Awards, Digital presentation single features topic, “First Foods”

Award of Excellence, 80th Pictures of the Year International (2023), Documentary Daily Life, “The body you have”

First Place, 2022 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, News & Issue – Individual, “They stood so tall”

First Place, 2022 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Culture, Sports & Science – Individual, “The old-growth expert”

First Place, 2022 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Team Portfolio, The Seattle Times

First Place, 2021 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Pandemic – Individual, “As close as you can get”

Second Place, 2021 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Race and Identity in America, “The Uprising”

Second Place, 2021 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Online Video Storytelling – Portfolio, The Seattle Times

Honorable Mention, 2020 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Large Team Portfolio, The Seattle Times

Overall Excellence, RTDNA National Edward R. Murrow Awards 2019, Large Digital News Organization, The Seattle Times

Award of Excellence, 76th Pictures of the Year International, Multimedia News & Issue Reporting Story, “We want answers, we want justice”

Gold, Large Newsroom, 2019 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards, Hostile Waters, The Seattle Times

Honorable Mention, NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2019, Portfolio (Large Team), The Seattle Times

2nd Place, 2017 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Multimedia, Multimedia Portfolio Large Market (Team), The Seattle Times

2nd Place, 2017 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Multimedia, Documentary Multimedia Package, The Seattle Times, “30 Days”

Silver, 2016 Society for News Design Best of Digital, Features: Single-subject project, The Seattle Times, “Under Our Skin”

1st place, 2016 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, Reporting: Hard News (Video), The Seattle Times, “How the state is missing chances to find deadly birth defect’s cause”

1st place, 2016 NPPA Best of Photojournalism Multimedia, News Multimedia Package, The Seattle Times, “Live Updates From May Day In Seattle”

Best short video, 2015 Associated Press Sports Editors (75,001-175,000), The Seattle Times, “What Does “12” Mean to You?”

Emmy Award, 2012 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New England Chapter, Outstanding Politics/Government Specialty Report, The Boston Globe “Getting In”

Best Video Continuing Coverage, 2012 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, Online News Operation – Local, The Boston Globe “Whitey Bulger Coverage”

Best Video News Series, 2012 Edward R. Murrow Awards Region 10, Online News Operation, The Boston Globe “9/11 Ten Years On”

Best Use of Video, 2012 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, Online News Operation – Local, “The Celtics Super Fans” (part of team composite)

Honorable Mention, 2012 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, The Boston Globe “Getting In”

Honoree, 2012 Webby Awards, Online Film & Video: News & Politics Series, The Boston Globe,“9/11 Ten Years On”

2nd Place, NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2012, Best Use of the Web, The Boston Globe “Getting In”

2nd Place, Boston Press Photographers Association, 2011 Contest, Video Story, “A Place of Peace”

2nd Prize, World Press Photo 2011, Multimedia contest – Interactive presentation, Powering a Nation

Gold, 65th College Photographer of the Year Awards, Large Group Multimedia, Powering a Nation

First Place, Online Convergence (40,000 to 150,000), Associated Press Managing Editors, The Roanoke Times “Legacy of the Flood”

Honorable Mention, North Carolina Press Photographers Association, 2010 Photographer of the Year

Award of Excellence, 64th College Photographer of the Year Awards, Large Group Multimedia, Living Galapagos

Finalist, 2010 ONA Awards, Multimedia Feature Presentation, Student – Living Galapagos

Finalist, 2010 SXSW Web Awards, Student category, Living Galapagos

Honorable Mention, 2010 Best of Photojournalism – Multimedia Package, Living Galapagos

Silver Award, SND Best of Digital Design 2010, Section/Topic Presentation, Powering a Nation

Student Award, SND Best of Digital Design 2010, Use of Multimedia, Living Galapagos

Student Award, SND Best of Digital Design 2010, Use of Multimedia, Powering a Nation

Best in Show, NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2011, Multimedia competition, “Spilling Over”

1st Place, NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2011, Documentary Video, “Spilling Over”

Gold, 65th College Photographer of the Year Awards, Multimedia Project, “Spilling Over”

Award of Excellence, 65th College Photographer of the Year Awards, Multimedia Project, “Splitting Main Street”

1st Place, 2011 Online Journalism Awards, Online Video Journalism – Small Site, “Spilling Over”

2nd Place, SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards, Region 2 Online News Reporting, “Splitting Main Street”

2nd Place, North Carolina Press Photographers Association, 2009 Photographer of the Year Awards – Multimedia Category, “A Risk Worth Taking”