Community Updates

New jobs, publications, and more from our community in 2023

 
 

Alex Kuffner

Alex Kuffner received a number of distinctions from the Society for Environmental Journalists. He received third honorable mention for large outlet’s Outstanding Explanatory Reporting Award for “Perilous Course” with colleagues in Gannett’s East Coast newsrooms. He also received second honorable mention for small outlet outstanding feature reporting award. (AWJ)

 

Annie Ropeik

Annie Ropeik has been named a 2023 Environmental Solutions Fellow at MIT. (AWJ)

 

Autumn Spanne

Autumn Spanne has been promoted to newsletter manager at Environmental Health News. (ERF)

 

Ayurella Horn-Muller

Ayurella Horn-Muller received the first place Society of Professional Journalists Florida chapter award for her story “Inside the race to digitally capture the world’s most fragile ecosystems — for science, and for the rest of us” published in Grist’s Fix. (AWJ)

 

Bina Venkataraman

Bina Venkataraman became The Washington Post’s inaugural “columnist of the future,” covering topics related to the future. (ERF)

 

Christie Taylor

Christie Taylor has started a part-time role on the weekly podcast for New Scientist. (AWJ)

“Newsrooms are busy, generally under-resourced, and journalists rarely have space for professional development of this scale. It is a true gift to have such a comprehensive package of training arranged and coordinated for us, to allow us to communicate with knowledge, efficacy, and empathy about the pace and scale of change the globe is experiencing. Workshops like this help build the journalists we will need to guide communities through the changes to come.”
Christie Taylor

Christine Woodside

Christine Woodside published a new book called Going Over the Mountain: One Woman’s Journey from Follower to Solo Hiker and Back Again. (AWJ)

 

Colin Kinniburgh

Colin Kinniburgh released an important three-part series of reports on fossil fuels, gas bills, and New York’s Climate Law. (AWJ)

 

Courtney Flatt

Courtney Flatt received a second honorable mention in the small outlet category for the Society of Environmental Journalist’s Outstanding Explanatory Reporting Award for her story “Mysteries of the Deep” published by the Northwest News Network. (CCSJ)

 

Dayvee Sutton

“I partnered with Ketti Wilhelm of Tilted Map (a travel website with a focus on sustainable travel) to write a white paper called: Start Here: Laying the Foundations for Responsible Travel. The goal of this guide is to provide a comprehensive, but succinct overview of why it is important to put the pillars of responsible travel at the forefront of every trip that is taken in the modern era. The challenge is that some of the concepts around responsible and sustainable tourism may be daunting and overwhelming, resulting in delayed action, or even worse, denial of the urgency to implement solutions. Our hope is that this guide breaks down the basic principles and offers tangible solutions that will inspire both consumers and industries with the shared incentive to apply responsible practices to everyday travel.” (AWJ)

 

Elizabeth Rush

Elizabeth Rush completed a nationwide book tour for her recently published book, The Quickening. (CCSJ)

 

Inayat Singh

Inayat Singh was named as a member of MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Fellows 2023-2024 cohort. (AWJ)

 

Jane Braxton Little

Jane Braxton Little was awarded second place for Bear Reporting (small) by the Society of Environmental Journalists for her story “FIRE: A Traditional Beat Becomes Painfully Personal.” (CCSJ)

 

Jason Margolis

Jason Margolis is taking over as the climate science editor for The Boston Globe. (AWJ)

 

Jeniffer Solis

Jeniffer Solis received second place for Written Feature Reporting from Battle Born Journalism. (AWJ)

 

Jo Lauder

Jo Lauder was a member of the Who’s Gonna Save Us radio podcast team which won a 2023 Covering Climate Now award.  (AWJ)

 

Jori Lewis

Jori Lewis was awarded the James Beard Media Award in the Reference, History, and Scholarship category for her book Slaves for Peanuts. (ERF)

 

Kelly House

Kelly House was named Journalist of the Year by the Michigan Press Association for her reporting highlighting the gaps in Michigan environmental policies. (AWJ)

“Attending Metcalf helped me better understand the science behind many of our most pressing environmental policy debates, and gave me the skills to translate complex scientific research into concise, accurate articles written in layperson’s terms. I’ve turned to those skills time and again in the years since.”
Kelly House

 

Meera Subramanian

Meera Subramanian: “While in India, I traveled to Nepal on a National Geographic Explorer grant that had been long-delayed by COVID, and will soon be writing about the vulture conservation efforts there. I continue to be a contributing editor of Orion where I have a column called Off the Map, and the Religion & Environment Story Project, which I co-direct with Stephen Prothero. It finished its second round of journalism fellows and its grant cycle.” ( AWJ)

 

Molly Peterson

Molly Peterson was an editor on the Climate Costs team, a California radio station collaborative that produced a variety of content on climate change in small rural communities, which was nominated by Covering Climate Now for an international long form audio award. (AWJ, SSJ)

 

Raquel Zaldívar

Raquel Zaldívar: “New job! I am now a Visual Journalist at the New England News Collaborative. One of the reporting focuses of my team is climate change and clean energy.” (AWJ)

 

Rosanna Xia

Rosanna Xia’s book California Against the Sea was listed on BookRiot’s “8 Science Books out this Summer that You Don’t Want to Miss.” Xia completed a book tour on the book and participated in several Q&As on the book. (AWJ)

 

Sara Peach

Sara was promoted to editor-in-chief of Yale Climate Connections (SSJ).

 “Metcalf gave me the framework for understanding and interrogating emerging science. Metcalf training is part of why I was able to identify and investigate a story before other reporters did.”
Sara Peach

 

Sarah McCammon

Sarah McCammon was part of the NPR team that won the Continuing Coverage award for their coverage of “The Fall of Roe V. Wade.” (AWJ)

 

Sindya Bhanoo

Sindya Bhanoo was awarded the 2023 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection for her book Seeking Fortune Elsewhere. (ERF)

 

Tricia Thibodeau

Tricia Thibodeau has accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of New England. (Career Development Program)

 

Virginia Schutte

Virginia Schutte: “I co-hosted a session with Bethann Garramon Merkle at the 2021 Inclusive SciComm Symposium called “Talking About the Hard Stuff: The Challenge of Putting Inclusive Scicomm Training Philosophy into Practice”. During that session, we collected opinions from experienced scicomm practitioners and trainers about what kind of career development program would best help them advance. In 2022, we used that informal data as a foundation to build and secure funding for “SciComm STEP: Sparking Transitions for Experienced Professionals”. We ran a pilot of this program in fall 2022 and the results blew past our expectations. 100% of participants reported: (a) specific mindset changes they credit to STEP; (b) that they anticipate making additional changes to professional workflow/behavior based on STEP; and (c) they have taken specific steps/made products directly because of STEP. A major example is a participant who applied for a new job during STEP as a result of the program. In 2023, we hope to find a sustaining funder for the program so we can continue to offer it to future cohorts of experienced communicators. None of this would have been possible without the input we received at the 2021 symposium on what our community most wants and needs.” (ISCS)

 

Qaseem Saeed

Qaseem Saeed is currently working with the State Department as a Climate Change Specialist in the U.S. Consulate General Karach in Pakistan. (AWJ)

 

“I don’t know if Metcalf realizes the value of my training experience, but I think about my days around Narragansett Bay with every single environment story.” –
Qaseem Saeed

Legend:

AB = Advisory Board
AWJ = Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists
CCSJ = Climate Change Seminar for Journalists
ERF = Environmental Reporting Fellowship
ISCS = Inclusive SciComm Symposium
PBLS = Peter B. Lord Seminars on the Environment
SSJ = Science Seminar for Journalists
SciComm Workshop = various communication workshops for researchers