- Core Program Activities
- Applying To the Program
- Eligibility
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Current Fellows
- Former Fellows
- History
Bios of Former Fellows
Bill Adler ('01-'02)
Bill Adler's articles have appeared in Texas Monthly, Esquire,
Rolling Stone, Mother Jones and many other publications.
He has also written two books: "Mollie's Job: A Story of Life and
Work on the Global Assembly Line" (2000) and "Land of Opportunity:
One Family's Quest for the American Dream in the Age of Crack"
(1995). He is at work on a book about Joe Hill, the Industrial Workers
of the World (Wobblies) songbird and agitator who was executed in Utah
in 1915. In December of 2007 he was awarded an Alicia Patterson
Journalism Fellowship to work on the book. Adler has a bachelor's degree
in history from Duke University. He lives in Denver with his wife and
son. Contact Adler at wmadler@gmail.com.
Bruce Barcott ('06-'07)
Bruce Barcott is a contributing editor for Outside magazine, for which he regularly writes environmental and adventure features. His new book, "The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw" (Random House), was featured on the cover of The New York Times Book Review in the spring of 2008. As a freelancer he has also written for The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Sports Illustrated, Legal Affairs and Mother Jones. The Society of Environmental Journalists awarded his New York Times Magazine article "Up In Smoke" first place for Explanatory Reporting in 2005. Barcott was also awarded the Washington Governor's Writers Award for his first book, "The Measure of a Mountain, a History of Mt. Rainier." Barcott earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Washington. He can be reached at westisbest@att.net.
David Baron ('98-'99)
A public radio journalist for more than 20 years, David Baron has worked as a science editor and reporter for NPR, WBUR in Boston, and the PRI/BBC program "The World." He is currently producing a special series on land use for NPR's "All Things Considered." Called "Shifting Ground", the series examines the forces that are altering America's landscape and showcases individuals and communities that are trying to regain control. Baron also is the author of "The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature" (W.W. Norton 2003), an exploration of the growing conflict between people and wild animals in America's suburbs. The book, which grew out of Baron's fellowship project while he was in Boulder, won a Colorado Book Award.
Elizabeth Bluemink ('02-'03)
Elizabeth Bluemink covers tourism, Native corporations, mining and timber and other industries at the Anchorage Daily News. Previously, she reported on logging, fishing and mining for the Juneau Empire in Alaska, where she won Alaska Press Club awards in 2004 and 2005 for her environmental reporting. She also worked as the environment reporter for the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, where she wrote about health concerns, Superfund sites, air pollution and a paper plant. The winner of a first-place award for feature writing in 2000 from the Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors, Bluemink previously worked for The Anniston (Ala.) Star and The Virginian-Pilot. She broke a number of stories on contamination by the Monsanto Corporation in Anniston, and reported on the multi-million-dollar litigation case against the company. In 2005, Bluemink co-authored a report for the Society of Environmental Journalists detailing barriers put up by federal agencies against journalists' use of the Freedom of Information Act. She also is editor of the "Bookshelf" page for SEJournal, the publication of the Society of Environmental Journalists. She has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia. Bluemink may be reached at ebluemink@gmail.com.
Jennifer Bowles ('98-'99)
Jennifer Bowles is the environment reporter at the Press-Enterprise, in Riverside, Calif. She covers an area of Inland Southern California that is a hotbed for endangered species, contentious water supply issues, earthquakes, pollution and a bevy of public lands issues. These days she is immersed in new-media technology, often hoisting a video camera to capture clips for the newspaper's Web site. She is one of the nation's few environmental reporters to have a blog on a newspaper Web site. She has won several Society of Professional Journalists awards since joining the Press-Enterprise in 1999. In recent years she has been a member of teams of reporters that have won awards from the News Executive Council of the Associated Press for environmental investigative efforts, including pollution at a missile testing site and its impact on the nearby residential neighborhood, where many people have gotten thyroid illness. She and a co-worker also received a second-place award in the public service category from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for their 2001series, "Troubled Waters," which revealed that a plume of MTBE from a fuel tank farm was heading for a drinking water well.
Lisa Busch ('99-'00)
Lisa Busch is the producer and editor of "Encounters", a radio program about the natural world in the North. Hosted and narrated by cultural anthropologist Richard Nelson, the show captures the wildest sounds in Alaska and Canada. The program won a National Science Foundation grant in 2008 and will be distributed nationally beginning October, 2008. Elizabeth Arnold guest-produces some of the segments, as will other producers from around the North. Busch is receiving her master's degree in Northern Studies from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Busch lives in Sitka with her husband and two daughters, their dog Louie and six ducks.
Carie Call ('00-'01)
Carie Call is an environmental planner for a large Florida engineering firm. She also serves on Lee County's Smart Growth planning committee, Lee County's 20/20 land preservation committee, and Lee County's Density Reduction Groundwater Resource committee, which focuses on the preservation of groundwater and drinking water. She also is a member of a women's philanthropy group on Pine Island, Fla., where she lives. As of 2007, Call was a Florida Department of Environmental Protection certified wetlands delineator. She writes environmental and socio-economic columns and articles for local newspapers. The Florida Press Club honored Call with second place in environmental reporting in 2004; she took third place in the same category from the Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors also recognized her in 2004 with a third-place award for best body of work, environmental reporting. Most recently, she garnered a NAMI of Collier County award for Outstanding Media for a 2005 series on the mentally ill. Prior to taking the position at the engineering firm, Call worked as a reporter for The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press. Call can be reached at clcall@pbsj.com.
Bebe Crouse ('05-'06)
Bebe Crouse works as a freelance writer, editor and communications trainer in Bozeman, Montana. She works primarily in the field of science communication. Before moving to Montana, Crouse was the Western and Environment editor for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. Among her journalism honors are the 2003 National Headliner Award for Investigative Reporting for a team-produced look at malfeasance within the U.S. Border Patrol, and the 2001 Peabody Award for NPR's team coverage of 9/11. Crouse's career includes five years at CBS News writing daily news analysis and commentary for Dan Rather and Charles Kuralt, as well as producing other feature and live segments for the network. She has worked as a reporter, producer and host in network and local television and radio, including three years as a Mexico City-based independent producer and reporter. Her work includes award-winning documentaries for television and radio. She earned a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and natural science from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a master's certificate in international journalism from the University of Southern California/El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. Contact Crouse at bcrouse@bresnan.net.
Paula Dobbyn ('98-'99)
Paula Dobbyn is a reporter at the Anchorage Daily News. She covers logging, mining, tourism and Alaska Native corporations. In October 2004 she exposed a conflict of interest scandal involving the state attorney general, who had been using his position to promote a large-scale coal project and a Denver company he owned stock in. Following Dobbyn's work, the attorney general was the subject of three separate ethics investigations. Dobbyn turned her Ted Scripps Fellowship project into a two-part series about Alaska Natives' timber management. The series, "Native Logging: A Clear-Cut Legacy," was honored with a 2002 award from the Society of Environmental Journalists for Outstanding Small Market Coverage, Print. She has traveled far from Alaska lately to Boulder, Panama and Ireland, where she scouted out graduate school programs. She and her fiancé plan to spend a year in Ireland starting in August, when she will begin grad school. Dobbyn says she is "excited about taking a year off from daily journalism and going back to school again, after a very long time away." Dobbyn can be reached at pauladob@gmail.com.
Leslie Dodson ('06-'07)
Leslie Dodson is a freelance television correspondent who has worked as a reporter, correspondent, anchor, on-air editor, producer and writer for a number of broadcast companies including CNBC. Reuters and CNN. She has been stationed all over the world: in Atlanta, Tokyo, London, New York and in six Latin American countries. Dodson's work has focused on international business and economic news and regularly has drawn connections between business and the environment. She was awarded special recognition by Reuters for her coverage of Latin America and South Korean debt restructuring talks. Dodson can be reached at lesliedodson@mac.com.
Sam Eaton ('04-'05)
Sam Eaton was hired by American Public Media's "Marketplace" October 2006 to head up the radio show's newly launched Sustainability Desk. He was immediately sent to China to report several features ahead of the show's two weeks of live broadcasting from China. Originally from Washington state, he now lives in Boulder. Just before his fellowship, Eaton lived in El Salvador where he produced a 26-part bilingual radio documentary for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The project looked at the condition of Central America and its people two decades after the civil strife that tore much of the region apart. Eaton has also reported on global trade issues from Central America for NPR's "Marketplace." Previously, he was a staff reporter for "Marketplace;" in New York City and a staff reporter at KUOW 94.9. FM, Seattle's National Public Radio affiliate. He has filed features and spot news for NPR, "Living on Earth," "Radio High Country News" and "National Native News." Eaton's work has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, The Associated Press and PRNDI. He has a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Northwestern University. Eaton can be reached at sam.mckendree@gmail.com.
John Flesher ('02-'03)
John Flesher is the northern Michigan correspondent and the Michigan environmental writer for The Associated Press and is based in Traverse City. He covers general news and feature stories in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula regions. In 2005, the AP designated him an environmental writer, with responsibility for statewide environmental issues and broader topics affecting the entire Great Lakes region. Since his fellowship, he has developed in-depth projects on wetlands, water conservation, mercury contamination and the battle over diverting Great Lakes water to other regions. He previously was the AP's Michigan regional reporter in the Washington bureau. He began his AP career in the Raleigh, N.C., bureau, where he was the statehouse reporter. Flesher was AP's Michigan Staffer of the Year in 1995 and a Great Lakes Environmental Issues Fellow at the Michigan State University School of Journalism in 1997. He was a fellow with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources in 2004 and 2006. He has a bachelor's degree in English from North Carolina State University. Flesher can be reached at jeflesher@yahoo.com.
Eric Frankowski ('03-'04)
Eric Frankowski is a climate and energy program director with Resource Media in Boulder, Colo. He helps non-profit environmental groups develop media strategies. Previously, he was city editor, assistant city editor and a reporter at the Longmont (Colorado) Daily Times-Call. During his tenure at the paper he received several prestigious awards, including the Colorado Press Association's General Excellence Award in 2001 and 2002. He also has received awards for his science and environment reporting at the Times-Call, where he wrote and edited a bi-weekly science section before moving into his current position. He and a colleague won the Society of Environmental Journalism's top award in 2004 in the 'small Market Reporting-Print" category for their series on the Cotter Corporation, a uranium milling company near Cañon City, Colorado. Frankowski has a bachelor's degree with a double major in biology and Spanish and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Contact him at eafrankowski@yahoo.com.
Cate Gilles ('98-'99)
Cate Gilles earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she graduated Cum Laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving her master's degree Summa Cum Laude in political science at Northern Arizona University, she worked as editor of the Din* Bureau of the Gallup Independent and as a correspondent for the Navajo Times. In 1994 she received the Bojack Humanitarian Award for Reporter of the Year. Gilles passed away on August 4, 2001. At the time of her death, she was editor of the Yaqui Times, the newsletter of the Pascua Yaqui reservation. A Web site has been established in her memory.
Daniel Glick ('00-'01)
Dan Glick is a well-traveled Colorado-based freelancer who covers environmental issues in the West and beyond. His work has been published in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Audubon and many other national magazines. His second book, "Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth," was published in June 2003 by Public Affairs and won the Colorado Book Award in the History/Biography category. The book is part memoir, part ecological treatise, chronicling the five-month, round-the-world trip that he and his children made in 2001. A key goal was to show his kids some of the world's most spectacular and endangered natural places, from the Great Barrier Reef to the jungle home of Borneo's orangutans. Glick is also the author of "Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain." In 2006 he was named a Knight International Press Fellow and traveled to Algeria with his two children. For more about his books, visit his Web site at www.danielglick.net. He can be reached at djayglick@earthlink.net.
Dan Grossman ('99-'00)
Dan Grossman has been a print journalist and radio producer for 19 years.
He holds a Ph.D. in political science and a B.S. in physics, both from
MIT. He has reported from all seven continents including from within
1,000 miles of both the south and north poles. He has produced radio
stories and documentaries on science and the environment for National
Public Radio's show on the environment "Living on Earth;"
National Public Radio's news magazine "Weekend Edition;" Public
Radio International's international affairs show, "The World;"
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Germany's Deutsche Welle radio;
the BBC; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; the documentary show
'soundprint and Radio Netherlands", among other show. He has written
for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Discover Magazine,
Audubon and Scientific American, among other national
publications. In December of 2007 he was awarded a prestigious Alicia
Patterson Journalism Fellowship to work on a multimedia project titled
"Dispatches from Global Warming's Hotspots." His other honors
include a 2002 George Foster Peabody Award (for DNA Files public radio
documentary series, of which he produced one hour-long show), the highest
honor in broadcast; the 2003 and 2005 Science Journalism award of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the leading science
journalism award; the 2004 and 2006 Media Award of the American Institute
of Biological Sciences; and first and third prize in the category of
in-depth radio reporting in the Society of Environmental Journalist's
Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment competition. He is coauthor
of "A Scientist's guide to talking with the Media: Practical
advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists." In 2008, Dan won an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to work on a major radio and multimedia project titled "Dispatches from Global Warming Hotspots."
Visit his work:
Fantastic Forests: The Balance Between Nature & People of Madagascar
Land of Ice and Snow
Antarctica Special
He can be reached at dgrossman@alum.mit.edu.
Todd Hartman ('98-'99)
Todd Hartman is on the environment beat at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, where he covers a smorgasbord of environmental issues as rich as Colorado's marvelous scenery. Smog, the state's energy boon, the Bush administration's effect on environmental enforcement, up and downs in recycling, the state's ongoing struggle over water and wild hogs running roughshod over farmland – everything's on the menu. Hartman has won several national and regional awards for his coverage since completing his fellowship, including widespread recognition for the 2004 series "The Last Drop," about Colorado's urban Front Range drying up the once water-rich mountain landscape, a series he co-wrote with 2006-07 Scripps fellow Jerd Smith. In 2003, Todd won second place in the National Headliner Awards for the newspaper magazine category for a 24-page narrative entitled "Dividing the Waters," the story of how an ambitious Denver suburb reached into a tiny eastern Colorado town, thirsty for its water. The piece also won first place for in-depth reporting from the North American Agricultural Journalists. Hartman also won second place in the John B. Oakes Award, a prestigious national prize for environmental reporting, for a special section in 2002 on chronic wasting disease, written and reported with two other colleagues. In 2001, he was awarded first place in the "Best of the West" contest for a three-part series on a $200 million effort to save four rare species of fish in the Colorado River. He has a B.A. in History from the University of Colorado. Hartman can be reached at hartmant@rockymountainnews.com.
Don Hopey ('05-'06)
Don Hopey is an environment reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His writing displays a mix of local, state and national investigative stories and issue-oriented outdoor features. He has produced series of articles about pollution caused by the nation's hazardous waste incinerators, shortcomings in Pennsylvania's regulation of longwall coal mining, and an 80-mile canoe trip through the Wild and Scenic sections of the Allegheny River. In summer 1998 he traveled to Central Europe to research and report about a range of environmental problems. Previously, Hopey was a general assignment, labor and investigative reporter for the Pittsburgh Press and city hall reporter for the Altoona Mirror. His work has been recognized by a number of local and regional awards. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and studied law at Duquesne University and journalism at Pennsylvania State University. Contact Hopey at dhopey@post-gazette.com.
Katy Human ('00-'01)
Katy Human is the medical and science reporter for The Denver Post, where she focuses on health care reform and also writes about climate change, stem cell research and anthropology whenever she can. Previously she was the science and environment reporter for Boulder's Daily Camera. Human traveled to Peru after her Ted Scripps Fellowship, married science teacher Gregg Cruger, and now has two children, Miles and Macy. Human can be reached at
khuman@denverpost.com.
Rebecca Huntington ('01-'02)
Rebecca Huntington is a freelance journalist based in Jackson, Wyoming. After working for newspapers for more than a decade, Huntington has expanded her storytelling to audio and video. A regular contributor to Wyoming Public Radio, Huntington also writes and produces Web multimedia reports. In 2006, she was awarded the Wyoming Wildlife Federation's Conservation Communicator Award for her efforts to educate the public about a provision in a federal budget bill to sell of public land. "It was because of people like her who were digging and asking questions that the true nature of the bill was revealed," federation board member Armond Acri told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Huntington also won third place for investigative and in-depth reporting in the National Newspaper Association's 2006 Better Newspaper Contest for her series on how Snake River water sustains Jackson's tourism economy while being controlled by downstream farmers. Her river series won first place for in-depth reporting from the Wyoming Press Association. Huntington is the contributing writer for the Sustainable Living Department in Teton Home and Living magazine. On a personal note, she completed a 185-mile circumnavigation of Jackson Hole on skis with her husband, who dreamed up "The Hole Tour" in April 2006. During her fellowship year, Huntington completed an in-depth series for the Jackson Hole Guide on elk management practices at the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming. The National Newspaper Association awarded her stories first place for best investigative or in-depth series in the small weekly market. She previously worked at The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., and the Lewiston Morning Tribune in Lewiston, Idaho. Huntington has a bachelor's degree in journalism and Spanish from the University of Montana. Contact her at rahuntington@gmail.com.
Jeff Johnson ('05-'06)
Jeff Johnson is senior editor for Chemical and Engineering News in Washington, D.C. He covers energy, the environment, science policy, chemical accidents and economics for this weekly science news magazine. The range of topics he has written about include air emissions and the Clean Air Act, mercury pollution, renewable energy from the ocean, cleanups at former Department of Energy nuclear weapons plants and "clean coal." Previously, Johnson worked for Environmental Science & Technology, a monthly environmental science magazine, and before that for the Daily Environment Reporter, a Bureau of National Affairs publication where he covered the environmental activities of Congress. He earned a BS in industrial engineering at California State Polytechnic University and a master's in journalism at the University of Oregon. Contact Johnson at j_johnson@acs.org.
Patrick Joseph ('99-'00)
Patrick Joseph is currently Senior Editor at California Magazine, the alumni publication of the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Oakland, Calif., with his wife and two children, Lucia and Marco. Joseph can be reached at patjoseph@gmail.com.
Anne Keala Kelly ('06-'07)
Keala Kelly is a Hawaii-based freelance journalist and regular radio correspondent for Independent Native News and Free Speech Radio News. She has written for a number of print publications including the Honolulu Weekly and Indian Country Today. Her work focuses on the experiences and perspectives of native Hawaiians. Keala was awarded the Native American Journalists Association's Best Feature Story 2005 award for her radio program "Native Hawaiians Losing Their Land." NAJA also awarded her two awards in 2004 for print features, including a series of articles about Hawaiian support for the Gwich'in people of northern Alaska who oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Kelly has a bachelor's degree in filmmaking and a master's degree in directing from UCLA. Kelly can be reached at keala_kelly@yahoo.com.
John Kotlowski ('03-'04)
John Kotlowski is a freelance photojournalist. He does work for Newsweek, Discover, and Audubon magazines as well as The Washington Post and The New York Times. He has also done several book-length projects. Before going freelance in 1996, he worked as a staff photographer for newspapers including the Gazette in Colorado Springs and The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. His work can be seen on his Web site. Contact Kotlowski at info@josephkotlowski.com.
Douglas MacPherson ('02-'03)
Douglas MacPherson was most recently a senior reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio in Concord where he specialized in science and natural resource issues. His stories appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition," and Public Radio International's "Marketplace." He has also held a variety of positions, from statehouse reporter to producer, at NPR's Boston affiliate, WBUR. MacPherson's bachelor's degree is in literary studies from Middlebury College in Vermont. He may be reached at dougmac@metrocast.net.
Alex Markels ('03-'04)
Alex Markels is a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report, where he recently wrote cover stories on the world's growing shortage of fresh water, the meltdown in the nation's housing market and Warren Buffett's investing strategy. A former Wall Street Journal staff reporter, he most recently was a supervising editor at National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" show in Washington, D.C., where he helped oversee the show's daily coverage. He has also authored recent stories for Marketplace, NPR and The New York Times, among others. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Contact him at alex@markels.com.
David Mayfield ('00-'01)
David Mayfield is regional issues editor for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where he supervises five writers. He had a story published in the fall 2001 issue of OnEarth magazine (formerly Amicus Journal) that stems from his Ted Scripps Fellowship. The story, titled "A Farewell to Arms," is about a former Army ammunition plant in Wisconsin that has become a sanctuary for grassland birds. Click here to read it. Mayfield can be reached at dmzmay@yahoo.com.
Kim McGuire ('03-'04)
Kim McGuire moved to Denver in October 2004 to become an environment reporter for The Denver Post, where she covers the environmental impacts of energy development; wildlife; air quality and river issues, focusing on the West Slope. Previously, she was the environment reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and before that worked at two Texas newspapers, the Beaumont Enterprise and the Tyler Morning Telegraph. McGuire has received several awards for her hard-hitting coverage, which has spanned subjects ranging from diminishing Mississippi Delta aquifers to toxic waste and environmental justice issues. In October 2004, her two-part series on the risk associated with the destruction of chemical weapons, the culmination of her fellowship project, ran in the Democrat-Gazette. McGuire has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas A & M University. Contact her at
kmcguire@denverpost.com.
Ron Meador ('01-'02)
After his fellowship Ron Meador returned to his post as an editorial writer at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, where he had been employed since 1980 in various editing and management roles. After the sale of the paper to a private equity investment group in early 2007, he resigned to pursue interests in freelance writing and environmental advocacy; in mid 2007 he began work as executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Prior to that, he was a copy editor at The New York Times and The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2000, Meador received the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing presented by The Wilderness Society, the latest in a long list of professional awards. Meador holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and sociology from Indiana University. Reach him at ronmeador@gmail.com.
Michael Milstein ('97-'98)
Michael Milstein is an environment and science reporter at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., where he covers an array of natural resource issues. He completed a series about the rise of salmon farming and its environmental impacts, a story that took him to British Columbia and Norway during the reporting. He has also covered wildfires in Oregon and the West, Klamath Basin water struggles, and the Bush Administration's drive to reinstate more logging in Northwest forests. Before joining The Oregonian, he worked out of his basement in Cody, Wyoming, as the Wyoming Bureau reporter for The Billings Gazette. There he covered science, environment and public lands issues in and around Yellowstone National Park and wrote two books about Yellowstone. Milstein also works as a freelancer, writing for High Country News and Air & Space, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Astronomy, Earth and others. Discovery.com, the Discovery Channel Web site, sent him to the north slope of Alaska to report about a dinosaur dig there. He and his wife, Sue, had a son, Daniel, in 2004. Contact Milstein at
michaelmilstein@news.oregonian.com.
Vicki Monks ('03-'04)
Vicki Monks is a prolific multi-media freelancer who works as a writer, reporter, photographer and radio and TV producer. Her articles and documentaries have tackled global environmental subjects, from the deforestation of Irian Jaya to the problem of plastic trash in the ocean to the "radioactive runoff" from the forest fire that swept through the Los Alamos National Laboratory near her home. Her work has appeared on National Public Radio, BBC Radio, CBS' "60 Minutes," PBS Online, and in National Wildlife magazine and the American Journalism Review. Monks has moved back to Oklahoma where she is working on a book about Indian Country in Oklahoma 100 years after statehood and reporting on environmental threats to Indian lands. She won a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to continue a series of radio stories on that subject for NPR's "Living on Earth" program. She is currently investigating the situation in Tar Creek, Oklahoma, where Indian children have blood lead levels four times the national average, far above levels known to cause brain damage. Abandoned lead and zinc mines in northeastern Oklahoma continue to contaminate Quapaw tribal lands in the region, despite designation as a priority Superfund site 20 years ago, Vicki reports.
She is author of "Amber Waves of Gain," a book that explores how the American Farm Bureau's financial ties with big business drive its lobbying efforts, which often work against the interests of family farmers. Monks has won a long list of national and international awards and was a Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. In 2006, she taught broadcast writing as an adjunct instructor at the University of Oklahoma. And, OU's School of Art honored her with a first place award in the Native American Alumni, Faculty and Student art show. The award was for photographs that will be used in her forthcoming book. A member of the Chickasaw tribe, she has a Bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. Contact her at vicki.monks@gmail.com.
Susan Moran ('01-'02)
Susan Moran lives in Boulder, Colo., where she is a freelance writer and has been a journalism instructor at the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her work has been published in The Economist, The New York Times, 5280 magazine, Newsweek and other publications, covering environmental, business, technology and health issues. Before coming to Boulder, Moran was based in San Francisco, where she was a senior editor at Business 2.0 magazine. Previously she worked with Reuters news agency in Tokyo, New York and Silicon Valley. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, a master's degree in Asian studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor's degree in political science from UC Santa Cruz. E-mail Moran at susan.moran@colorado.edu.
Emily Murphy ('99-'00)
Emily Murphy lives in Atlanta, Ga. where she is the multimedia director for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Web site. Before moving to Atlanta, Murphy was part of USA TODAY's Web team that won three awards in the University of Missouri's Picture of the Year International contest for their coverage of the Bush Inauguration, Hurricane Katrina and soldiers in Iraq. Prior to working for USA TODAY, she was a multimedia producer and editor at nationalgeographic.com and a television producer at CNN. Murphy can be reached at emilymurphy@rocketmail.com.
Rachel Odell ('04-'05)
Rachel Odell is an associate editor at Skiing Magazine in Boulder, Colo. Before joining Skiing she covered environmental issues for The Bulletin in Bend, Ore. Prior to that, she covered the environment for the Jackson Hole News in Jackson, Wyo. Odell graduated with a double major in French and Environmental Studies from Middlebury College in Vermont and studied abroad in Madagascar. Reach her at rjodell@gmail.com.
Natalie Phillips ('02-'03)
Natalie Phillips passed away in September of 2007. Prior to her death,
she served as the associate producer of "The Quiet War, profiles
of women facing advanced breast cancer," a documentary about living
with metastasized breast cancer. The film won first place for documentaries
at the Los Angeles Reel Women Film
Festival. More information available at Affinityfilms.
Natalie retired from her job as a senior staff writer at the Anchorage
Daily News in 2003. Her assignments with the paper had focused
on science and environmental issues including the class action Exxon
Valdez oil spill trial. She was a reporter and assistant managing editor
at the Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle, and a staff
writer at the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph and the Vail
(Colorado) Trail. A recipient of numerous state, regional
and national journalism awards, she also freelanced for a range of publications
including Time magazine, The New York Times and The
Washington Post. Phillips received a bachelor's degree in journalism
from the University of Montana and studied in language programs at the
University of Salamanca, Spain, and Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City.
Anne Raup ('06-'07)
Anne Raup is the assistant photo editor for the Anchorage Daily News and a photographer. Her photographic coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City earned her third place among sports stories in the National Press Photographers Association's Best of Photojournalism contest. As a photographer and as a part of editing teams, Raup has earned several other photojournalism awards, including the University of Missouri's Best Use of Photography 2000 award. Her interest in people and the environment is reflected in her handling of stories like the 15-part series she edited about a journey down the Yukon River. She holds a bachelor's degree in environmental science from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Raup can be reached at anneraup@hotmail.com.
Bruce Ritchie ('97-'98)
Bruce Ritchie is the Growth and Environmental Reporter at the Tallahassee Democrat. He has extensively covered water wars among Alabama, Florida and Georgia, Florida's revision of its growth management laws, coastal development and nitrate pollution in groundwater and in springs at Florida's state parks. In June 2006, he co-wrote a three-day series on the threats to Florida's springs. He received the "Award of Excellence" from the Capital Area Section of the American Planning Association's Florida chapter. His series on competing water needs along the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system in 2001 was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Ritchie can be reached at britchie@earthlink.net.
Liz Ruskin ('04-'05)
Liz Ruskin is a freelancer in Cambridge, England. Before moving overseas, she was the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Anchorage Daily News where she covered Alaska issues in the nation's capital including the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and logging in the Tongass National Forest. She began her career at Homer (Alaska) News. She has been a National Press Foundation Paul Miller Fellow and has won two Best of the West reporting awards and numerous Alaska Press Club awards. Ruskin has a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri and a bachelor's in political science from the University of Washington. She can be reached at liz.ruskin@gmail.com.
Christine Shenot ('97-'98)
Christine Shenot is project manager at the International City/County Management Association and heads up the Active Living Initiative. Previously, she worked for Maryland's Office of Smart Growth developing a communications strategy and initiatives to better inform the public about state policies on sprawl, natural resources and rural areas. Her job includes writing op-ed pieces and public speaking. Before moving to Maryland, Shenot covered Disney for the Orlando Sentinel. Shenot can be reached at cshenot@yahoo.com.
Andrew Silva ('04-'05)
Andrew Silva is the environment and transportation reporter at The Sun in San Bernardino, Calif. He covers a wide range of issues and has reported in-depth on water pollution, air pollution, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, desert ecology and the bark beetle crisis in the San Bernardino National Forest. He has also written a column on transportation issues for the paper, a hot topic in his rapidly growing region. Prior to joining The Sun's staff, Silva covered government beats at newspapers in Palm Springs, Riverside and Anaheim. An award-winning writer, he was most recently recognized in 2003 by the California Newspaper Association for a first-place environmental story, and by the Inland Empire Society of Professional Journalists with first place stories in the science and environment categories. Silva has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Humboldt State University. Contact Silva at aesilva4@earthlink.net.
Jerd Smith ('06-'07)
Jerd Smith is an environment reporter for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and specializes in water and drought issues. She led a team of journalists who covered the science, money, politics and ecology of water in Colorado from 2002-2005. During that time, her team won awards from the Colorado Press Association, the American Planning Association and the University of Colorado's Wirth Chair Media Award for Environmental Coverage. Smith and two colleagues also won Stanford University's 2005 Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism for a five-part series titled "The Last Drop." She holds a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of Evansville in Indiana and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Smith can be reached at jj1525@msn.com.
Greg Stahl ('05-'06)
Greg Stahl is the assistant editor at the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper in Ketchum, Idaho. Before the fellowship, he was the newspaper's senior reporter. In that capacity he covered public land issues such as user conflicts between backcountry skiers and snowmobilers, resource issues such as forest health and endangered species issues including gray wolf reintroduction. His co-authored series examining trends in western wilderness designation won the 2004 National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest in the investigative reporting category. Another co-authored series examining western resort-town growth earned second place recognition in the same category in 2005. He has won numerous awards in competitions among Idaho's newspapers and magazines in categories varying from politics and general news to features and environmental reporting. As assistant editor, he writes less than he used to but enjoys the time he spends as a writing coach and filling in on environmental reporting when the workload gets heavy. His freelance articles have run in publications such as High Country News, Sun Valley Art magazine and Elevation magazine. He hopes to write a book based on his fellowship project, which focused on modern trends in wilderness designation. Keep tabs on his work—journalism and otherwise—at his Web site. Stahl can be reached at grstahl@gmail.com.
Paul Tolme ('00-'01)
Paul Tolme is a freelance writer in Trinidad, Calif., and a frequent contributor to Newsweek, National Wildlife, Defenders, Audubon and SKI magazines. The editors of National Wildlife recently awarded Tolme the Trudy Farrand and John Strohm Magazine Writing Award, an honor bestowed annually by NWF for the best writing in the magazine. Paul got the award for his article "It's the Emissions, Stupid" (April/May 2005), which highlighted strategies for combating global warming pollution. Prior to his fellowship, Paul was a staff writer for The Associated Press for 10 years. His work can be seen on his Web site. E-mail him at ptolme@aol.com.
Andrea Welsh ('05-'06)
Andrea Welsh is a correspondent for Reuters in Brasilia and the lead reporter on environmental issues in a country that stretches from the Amazon rainforest in the north to the Pantanal wetlands in the west to some of the world's most productive farmland in the south. She writes regularly about Brasil's role in the global climate change debate and the difficulty the government faces in trying to slow destruction of the Amazon while also lifting its people out of poverty. She also writes about the economy, indigenous issues, health and sometimes agriculture – including the environmental dilemma posed by planting more sugar cane to make ethanol. Before her fellowship, she was a correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires in Mexico, Chile and Brazil. She covered economic issues, writing about everything from the mining industry to capital markets to trade talks with the United States. Welsh previously worked in Houston as the Latin America reporter for Petroleum Argus, a trade publication covering the politics and economics of the global oil trade. Welsh holds a bachelor's degree in communications from Temple University in Philadelphia and a master's in Latin American studies and communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Contact Welsh atandreawelsh@yahoo.com.
Dan Whipple ('97-'98)
Dan Whipple is a freelance writer in Broomfield, Colo., who specializes in science and the environment. He does nearly all the national environmental reporting for the United Press International wire service. He also writes a syndicated newspaper column with co-author Geoff O'Gara on western issues, mostly environment-related. The column, sponsored by Dan's former employer, the Casper Star-Tribune, runs on the Scripps Howard News Service. New Scientist magazine ran a piece by Whipple in its "Histories" section that was based on his fellowship work. When he isn't busy writing, Whipple enjoys playing basketball three days a week and his guitar nearly every day. His wife, Kathleen Bogan, is the design director at the Rocky Mountain News. They a have two teenage sons. Reach Whipple at dswhipple@earthlink.net.
Nadia White ('04-'05)
Nadia White is an assistant professor at the University of Montana's School of Journalism. Prior to her fellowship, she was state editor at the Casper Star-Tribune, where she oversaw development of statewide news through bureaus across Wyoming and in Washington, D.C. "Working at the Casper Star-Tribune means covering the environment," White says, where daily news topics include oil, gas and coal production on public lands and a multitude of wildlife and habitat issues. She is particularly interested in the way society has chosen to address disease in wildlife. In 2003, White traveled to Kazakhstan to look at the livestock disease brucellosis in a comparative context on an International Center for Journalists World Affairs fellowship. The story she wrote on her findings there received a prestigious 2003 Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). During her fellowship the Star-Tribune published a series of stories on brucellosis contracted by humans. White has a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's in psychology from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She can be reached at white_nadia@hotmail.com.
David Wilson ('02-'03)
David Wilson lives in Boulder, Colo., where he is currently studying law at the University of Colorado. He has been a freelance radio producer focusing on science and environmental issues and provided daily news coverage of the state legislature for 12 community radio stations in Colorado. Wilson's more than 100 news stories and documentaries have appeared on programs such as "soundprint," "Marketplace," "Living on Earth," "High Plains News" and "Pacifica Network News," as well as on Boulder's community radio station, KGNU. He was previously managing producer at Alternative Radio after several years as news and public affairs director for KGNU. His "Exploring the Universe" program was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Whitaker Award for best radio documentary series in 2000. Wilson holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Colorado and earned a master's in physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He may be reached at
dbw37@indra.com.
Ted Wood ('01-'02)
Ted Wood is an award-winning photojournalist, who specializes in natural history and environmental stories. He wrote, "I am now an officially censored photojournalist in Wyoming!!" The project he started during his Ted Scripps Fellowship on the coal-bed methane boom in Wyoming bore fruit, as well as notoriety, for Wood. An exhibit of his photos opened in early 2007 at the gallery of the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming's Powder River basin. The show, "The New Gold Rush: Images of Coalbed Methane," which featured his work and that of three other photographers, was scheduled to travel to the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, Wyoming's largest museum. But after pressure from the energy industry, the museum cancelled the show. This created a huge press interest, says Wood, and the effort backfired. The show is now booked two years out, and will travel throughout the Rockies and to the coasts. Recent projects have included shoots for Vanity Fair, Outdoor Life and The Nature Conservancy Magazine, the latter spread part of a story on a cooperative bison ranch in South Dakota. Wood also shot a February 2003 feature story by Jim Robbins in the Los Angeles Times Magazine on environmental impacts of coal-bed methane extraction in Wyoming, the subject of Wood's fellowship project. He traveled to Mongolia in the summer of 2003, where he and Institute on the Environment alum Jeremy Schmidt are launching a nonprofit venture called Conservation Ink. The organization will develop interpretive publications for national parks and ecological preserves in third world countries that are financially unable to produce support materials on their own. Wood took a group of patrons on a trip to Hovsgol National Park in Mongolia in association with the project, which is funded with a grant from National Geographic magazine. He is headed back to Mongolia in July 2007, where he put the final touches on a second set of map/guides and postcards to promote responsible tourism in Mongolia's national parks. He is also an author/photographer of nine children's books that feature nature and environmental themes. He has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. His work can be seen on his Web site. Contact Wood at tedwood@conservationink.org.