Writers

Award winners whose work is featured in Showcase

Christie Aschwanden

Science writer

Christie Aschwanden is a Colorado-based freelance writer and author of the bestselling Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery. Her work also appears in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Discover, Smithsonian, Mother Jones, Popular Science, and O, the Oprah Magazine. She is a member of the CASW board. Aschwanden has received journalism fellowships from the Santa Fe Institute, the Carter Center, and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. She was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2011, and her work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, National Institute for Health Care Management, NASW and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.  Her story “The Real Scandal: Science Denialism at Susan G. Komen for the Cure®” (featured on Showcase) won the National Association of Science Writers’ Science in Society Award in 2013. She tweets @CragCrest.

Anna Maria Barry-Jester

Multimedia Journalist

Anna Maria Barry-Jester is a multimedia journalist and staff writer with FiveThirtyEight who specializes in public health. She has reported on a wide range of topics, including a mysterious epidemic of kidney diseases killing thousands of agriculture workers in Central America, the rollout of the Affordable Care Act in Latino communities, and the ethics of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. Her work previously appeared in numerous outlets, including ABC News, the Center for Public Integrity, and Univision. The International Reporting Project and the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California have supported her reporting, and she has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Sidney Hillman Foundation, and the Society for Environmental Journalists, among others. Her story “Suicide in Wyoming” (featured on Showcase) was part of the FiveThirtyEight series Gun Deaths in America, which won a National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Communication Award in 2017. Follow Barry-Jester on Twitter @annabarryjester.

Tony Bartelme

Reporter

Tony Bartelme, a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is a special projects reporter for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina. His investigative reporting has exposed government corruption and explored diverse issues ranging from changes in ocean plankton to the global shortage of doctors. His work has received the highest honors in journalism. His story “Lowcountry on the Edge” (featured on Showcase) received the Walter Sullivan award from the American Geophysical Union. He is the author or co-author of several books, including A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa. The Washington Post called A Surgeon, published in 2017 by Beacon Press,  it a “harrowing and important book.” Bartelme, awarded a Nieman fellowship in 2010, is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Charleston with his partner, Annie, and has one son, Luke. In his off time, he does marathons and triathlons.

Sharon Begley

Senior Science Writer at STAT

Sharon Begley is the senior science writer at STAT, the life sciences publication of the Boston Globe. Previously she was the senior health & science correspondent at Reuters (2012-2015), the science editor and science columnist at Newsweek (2007 to 2011), and the science columnist at The Wall Street Journal (2002 to 2007). She is the author of the 2017 book Can’t Just Stop: An Investigation of Compulsions; co-author (with Richard J. Davidson) of the 2012 book The Emotional Life of Your Brain; author of the 2007 book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain; and co-author (with Jeffrey Schwartz) of the 2002 book The Mind and the Brain. Begley is the recipient of numerous awards for her writing. Her STAT story “Gene Drive Gives Scientists Power to Hijack Evolution” (featured on Showcase) won the 2017 Victor Cohn Prize for Medical Science Reporting.

Eric Boodman

Science Reporter

As a reporter for STAT, Eric Boodman‘s work has brought him into operating rooms and monkey labs, cattle auctions and desert refugee clinics. He got his start writing book reviews for the Montreal Gazette, and his pieces have since appeared in the TheAtlantic.com, Discover, and other publications. Eric’s narrative journalism has won a number of awards, including the American Society of Magazine Editors’ “Next” Award and the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists, both in 2017. His story, “Accidental Therapists” (featured on Showcase) was part of the winning package for the latter. Follow him on Twitter @EricBoodman.

Natalia Bronshtein

Interactives Editor

Natalia Bronshtein, interactives editor, creates data-driven stories for STAT, helping to turn complex information into visualizations that tease out hidden patterns and connections. After earning a doctorate in economics, Natalia conducted postdoctoral research at Brandeis University as a Fulbright Scholar, was a professor at two universities in Russia, and worked at Euromonitor International, a consulting company, where she covered health care and pharmaceuticals, among other industries. Her visualizations have been featured in The Best American Infographics 2016, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Forbes, Vox, and elsewhere. One visualization for the story “Failure to Report” (featured on Showcase) won a AAAS Kavli award in 2016. Follow her on Twitter @ininteraction.

Cally Carswell

Freelance Science Journalist

Cally Carswell is a freelance journalist covering science and the environment, and a contributing editor at High Country News. She likes to write about living things as well as dying things. She lives on a dusty lot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is populating it with flowering plants that require shockingly little water. Her HCN story “The Tree Coroners” (featured on Showcase) won the National Association of Science Writers’ Science in Society Award and the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Kevin Carmody Award for In-Depth Reporting, Small Market. Follow her on Twitter @callycarswell.

 

Paul Christiansen

Freelance Journalist

Paul Christiansen is a 2014 graduate of the Utah State University Department of Journalism and Communication. Since graduating, he has kept busy writing for various print publications and doing freelance work in Wyoming, Utah, Oregon and, most recently, Idaho. His Salt Lake City Weekly story “Devatated” (featured on Showcase) won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in 2014 for the small newspaper category. Christiansen likes to believe he lives a quiet life with three dogs, three cats, his fiance and his guitars. 

Ron Cowen

Freelance Science Writer

Ron Cowen is a freelance science writer who specializes in physics and astronomy and is keenly interested in the intersection of science, art and popular culture. Before freelancing, he wrote for Science News for 21 years. His freelance articles have appeared in Nature, Scientific American, The New York Times, Science, National Geographic, and U.S. News & World Report. His Nature story “The Quantum Source of Space-Time” (featured on Showcase) won the American Institute of Physics Award in 2016. He and his family are based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

David Dobbs

Journalist

David Dobbs writes features and essays about science, sports, music and other cultures for publications including National GeographicThe AtlanticPacific StandardSlate, and Mother Jones. He is the author of three books and the #1 Kindle Single My Mother’s Lover, from The Atavist. His Pacific Standard story “The Social Life of Genes” (featured on Showcase) won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in 2014 for the magazine category.