At the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, Calif. 2022
Naomi Kooker is a multimedia award-winning journalist and producer whose eye for detail and truth-seeking cut to the core to tell a compelling story. Her collaboration with filmmaker Lindsay Caddle LaPointe earned the duo an award for their documentary short, Making Mill Town.
Naomi continues her collaboration with Caddle LaPointe as an executive producer for Why Are You You?, a documentary about the Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) program that saved and shaped the lives of adolescents who, now as adults, reflect on the movement’s continued impact on their lives and its complicated past.
As an outsider to the Unitarian Universalist experience, yet a PK (preacher’s kid in the Methodist denomination), Naomi is uniquely qualified to bring balance to and foster the Why Are You You? storyline for universal emotional appeal.
The film is in production with an anticipated 2025 release.
As a journalist, Naomi has reported on breaking news and written award-winning feature stories, covering everything from the arts to Boston’s restaurant business and nonprofit organizations.
She’s been a staff reporter for the Boston Business Journal and MetroWest Daily News, a deputy editor for Boston Common Magazine, and editor of the Zagat Restaurant Guides’ Boston and Cape Cod & the Islands editions (2007-2012).
Her stories have appeared in The Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Bon Appetit, TimeOut Boston travel guide, Yankee Magazine, Wine Spectator, Nation’s Restaurant News, and The Dorchester Reporter. Her travel writing has taken her to London, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Naomi has experience broadcasting, writing and delivering live reports for television and radio.
Naomi is an assistant professor in the School of Business and Communication at Regis College in Weston, Mass., focusing on journalism, writing and public speaking. Her greatest joy is watching her students blossom and find their voices.
She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction Writing at Bay Path University, a Master of Arts in Heritage Studies at Regis College, and her Bachelor of Arts in English from Drew University.
What people are saying
“Naomi is a talented writer and a good reporter. She approaches food writing with a strong journalistic basis and adds to that the enthusiasm and wit that can inspire a reader.”—Alison Arnett, former Boston Globe restaurant critic and food writer