On the fourth floor of Marquette University’s Johnston Hall resides Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, a media organization that runs its award-winning newsroom right out of a college campus.
But now, it’s not the only decorated publication that calls Johnston Hall home.
Around the corner and tucked away on the fourth floor lies a small office with a city view that will service a new regional bureau for ICT, formerly known as Indian Country Today.
ICT is an Indigenous news outlet, owned by IndiJ Public Media. With a focus on telling stories about Indigenous communities and people, the national organization will now expand its footprint to Wisconsin, a state home to 11 federally-recognized Native American tribes.
“We have strong Indigenous values,” Katie Oyan, president and CEO of IndiJ Public Media, said. “We adhere to things like respect and courage and truth-telling. We really strive to report on stories that you’re not going to see anywhere else — and report not just on Native communities, but from Native communities.”
Reporting from those locales will be Amelia Schafer, ICT’s new North Central Bureau correspondent. She unofficially cut the ribbon on her new Johnston Hall office in mid-January but will work in a largely remote capacity until her permanent relocation in May.
“I’ve never actually had my own office before, so I’m super excited,” Schafer said. “In my previous roles in-person, it was a ‘hot desk’ situation, so you couldn’t put anything on the desk full-time. I feel like this is going to be a really cool thing.”
Schafer and a student intern will be the lone correspondents working out of the campus newsroom, and her beats will include missing and murdered Indigenous women, business and gaming.
Though originally from Iowa and a transplant from South Dakota, Schafer has existing ties to Wisconsin with her heritage to Fond du Lac’s Brothertown Indian Nation.
In addition to Wisconsin, Schafer’s North Central bureau covers Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota. Much of her early work in the role has focused on the implications of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in Minnesota on local Indigenous communities.
Within the Badger State, ICT has another partnership with Wisconsin Watch, and Schafer will have access to its Madison office through an existing affiliation with NNS. Additionally, with a PBS Wisconsin partnership, PBS correspondent Erica Ayisi will work as an ICT reporter.
“I’m really excited to meet Erica and for us to get to do some great things together,” Schafer said.
The Madison-to-Milwaukee connection runs right through Marquette, sparked by IndiJ Public Media’s former president, Karen Lincoln Michel. Michel, a Marquette graduate, received an honorary doctorate from the university in 2023, just over a year before her departure from IndiJ Public Media and ICT.
But before she left, she set in motion a direct partnership that finally came to fruition in 2026. IndiJ Public Media and Marquette first began talks in late 2024, which intensified over the following spring. In July 2025, the leadership team made a trip to tour campus. On Oct. 28, 2025, the university made the official announcement: ICT was on its way.
“This collaboration is deeply rooted in our shared commitment to social justice and community engagement, values that have guided our journalism program for generations,” Kati Berg, acting dean of the College of Communication, said in a statement.
Patrick Johnson, an assistant professor in the College of Communication, worked with Berg to evolve the first contact with ICT into a lasting partnership. In the stretch of nearly a year, Johnson and Berg talked with faculty and NNS staff about how to make the newsroom a possibility.
“The journalism department is tiny, but mighty,” Johnson said. “It happened to be a really unique opportunity to have this partnership in place.”
The new relationship not only lets ICT work out of Johnston Hall, but it pulls it right into the fold at Marquette. Schafer will be able to attend faculty meetings, work in the NNS newsroom, communicate with journalism students and work alongside a student intern.
And it will all start in a small office, tucked into an alcove on the fourth floor of Johnston Hall. With a window overlooking Wisconsin Avenue, the office — including Schafer’s desk — will transform into a newsroom, becoming a headquarters for Indigenous news for years to come.
This story was updated to include new information.
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at [email protected].
