Brent Ruffner

BRuffner@iniusa.org

Journalism has fascinated Brent Ruffner since junior high school.

Since 2001, his stories have been published in newspapers from the Albuquerque to the Arizona and he has always had a knack for making sure his facts are right and his words are to the point. 

Growing up, Brent watched as sports reporters covered his beloved Phoenix Suns, a team he followed since Charles Barkley first arrived in Phoenix via trade in 1992. Sports reporting was a dream back then.

But after gaining some writing experience, Brent found a love for news instead of covering different types of sports. In 2008, he moved to New Mexico and covered crime, schools and city beats all while holding elected officials accountable. 

He covered stories that ranged from a DEA drug bust gone bad to an award-winning story on school lunches. 

In Arizona, Brent was a freelance writer who covered everything from the importance of citrus in the state to Esteban owning a store in downtown Prescott. 

Brent is a 2007 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.