While Lindsey Seavert is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award winning reporter, her greatest successes do not sit on a shelf. She is most proud of unearthing untold stories that encourage understanding and bringing them to light.
Her parents were Minnesota public school teachers who gave her the gift of curiosity, so with a book and pencil often in hand, she began writing as a young child, and hasn’t stopped since.
She graduated from Indiana University’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism and worked as a reporter at five news stations stretching from Northern Minnesota, Nevada, and Ohio before coming home to the Minneapolis, MN.
The legacy of teaching in her family inspires Lindsey to use stories as a vehicle to educate and serve the community. Her work often focuses on women, families and children, but she is most passionate about bringing a voice to underrepresented communities, which is how she discovered the transformation inside Lucy Craft Laney Elementary school.
When Lindsey is not on assignment, she mentors young journalists, enjoys running, creative writing, and volunteering in the community.
Her greatest rewards are her husband, Ian, and two children. Their son Stellan attends Minneapolis Public Schools, and the couple also has a younger daughter, Phoebe.
Directing and writing a documentary has always been a life’s dream, Lindsey dedicates her work to her late father, Larry Seavert. She imagines he is smiling down on this project with pride, as he spent his career fighting for the rights of teachers and opportunities for students.
Love Them First is Lindsey’s first documentary as a director.
A reflection on the theme: 'Towards a Loving World, Leadership and Governance for Well-Being'.
As directors of the Love Them First, a documentary featuring a Minneapolis principal fighting for students in the city’s longest standing ‘failing’ school, we strongly felt the title of the film should reflect the force behind the school’s triumphant turnaround.
It all starts with love.
The school leaders created a culture where they view students as their own children, raising them up with high standards and educational expectations, but first and always first in every classroom and in every lesson, is love.
Principal Mauri Friestleben once told us, “If you are in this work, you are in it to change the world.”
The story has now stretched from Minnesota, across the United States, and around the world to countries like Iceland, farther than we could ever measure as each child is transformed by a school that loved them, just as they are. We hope you will see the beauty captured in Love Them First is proof—love is our greatest teacher.