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Millions of gallons of oil had already flowed into the Gulf of Mexico when Mother Jones<\/a> reporter Kate Sheppard attended Metcalf Institute\u2019s Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists<\/a> in June of 2010. At the time, she was knee deep in reporting on the worst oil spill in U.S. history and one of the biggest stories of her career.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what shocked me most about the spill was just how long it went on,\u201d said Sheppard. \u201cLike many people, I assumed that if we had the technology to drill that deep in the Gulf, we would have the technology to prevent or at least fix a spill, too. I was also shocked by how many warning signs were ignored, and about how complacent [we seemed to have become] on safety, both on the rig and in our regulatory system.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheppard\u2019s oil spill coverage focused on issues related to policy and government regulation. She also reported on the government\u2019s apparent lack of oversight of the use of chemical dispersants to clean up the spill.<\/p>\n This is an excerpt from an article Sheppard wrote for Mother Jones in August of 2010:<\/a> Sheppard says the hands-on training she received during Metcalf\u2019s weeklong workshop that put her in the field and the laboratory with leading scientists helped give her the tools to accurately cover the massive spill.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was really a great way to get more versed in the science so that I could explain it to readers and it empowered me to do more writing about the science of the spill,\u201d said Sheppard.<\/p>\n She went on to win awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists<\/a> and the Online News Association<\/a> or her coverage of the Deepwater Horizon spill.<\/p>\n Sheppard, who now covers the environment, energy and health for Mother Jones, says she recommends the Science Immersion Workshop to fellow journalists all the time. \u201cThe workshop is great for people who have journalism degrees, but not a background in science and want to cover the environment in a more responsible way.\u201d<\/p>\nRead More Alumni Profiles<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Millions of gallons of oil had already flowed into the Gulf of Mexico when Mother Jones reporter Kate Sheppard attended Metcalf Institute\u2019s Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists in June of 2010. At the time, she was knee deep in reporting on the worst oil spill in U.S. history and one of the biggest stories of her career. \u201cI think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2195,"featured_media":9547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alum-hp","category-alumni-reporting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13764,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions\/13764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cWhy, might you ask, was BP able to pump the Gulf full of chemicals that have never been tested for their human and environmental safety? The answer lies, in part, in the Toxic Substances Control Act, the 34-year-old law that governs the use of tens of thousands of hazardous chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n