the repurposed journalist

“The impact of Sandy will be felt for months if not years to come.” Yet  New York’s Mindy Mizell knows that this will be a big story in the media for only a matter of weeks, at best.  She says “We need to remember that there are going to be people who still need our help whether we still see this on the news or not.”

In other words – while the compassion “window” will only be open so long – the needs of those hard-hit by Sandy will remain.

And as the media coverage for Sandy’s aftermath begins to fade, a few images linger for Mizell.

“The streets were packed with cars and taxis. People had to stay above ground with the subways still closed,” Mizell says, “The only reliable way I had to get to work was my Piaggo, scooter.” Mizell lives in New York with her husband, Travis Galey, who works for CBS News.  Mindy is World Vision U.S. Media Relations Director. Mizell says, “God has a way of putting me in the right place at the wrong time.”

When she says the “wrong time” she means when she’s assigned to a natural disaster.

Mizell has been Media Relations Director at World Vision since 2010. Her news career has taken her from Roswell, New Mexico to Baltimore to Washington, D.C. to Oklahoma City. Since she joined World Vision and “re-purposed” her journalism, Mindy Mizell has traveled all over the world hoping to draw reporters’ attention to issues like hunger, malnutrition, extreme poverty and natural disasters. But last Monday morning she was at home in Manhattan when the natural disaster came to her.

Relief supplies in the South Bronx Storehouse were damaged by Sandy before staff ever got to deliver them. Flood waters from the nearby East River destroyed dozens of boxes of relief supplies.

Mizell admits she was lucky. While at this writing, thousands are still without power, she says the lights at her home only flickered a few times. Damage to their apartment was confined to blown down branches.

She and Travis live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the upper left side of this now-famous picture in the current issue of New York.

But Mizell hasn’t been home much to notice. In the last two weeks Mindy has done dozens of interviews for local, national and international media, working 12-14 hour days. “We had so many media requests that my phone died while in transit and I had to charge it with the BBC crew in their cars while I did the interview.”

But again Mizell says she was lucky. Instead of broken windows and downed trees she just came home to her Schnauzer, Brinkley.

World Vision is an international Christian relief and development organization based in Federal Way, WA.