The Northwest Science Writers Association will help send two of its members to national conferences this year to advance their careers in science communication.
Freelance writers Janice Cantieri and Rebecca Heisman will each receive up to $1,000 to defray their expenses through NSWA’s Career Development Awards program. These awards are made possible by generous support from 2018 co-sponsor Intellectual Ventures.
Janice Cantieri, 25, is a Seattle-based environmental journalist specializing in climate change adaptation and solutions-oriented reporting, and will attend the Solutions Journalism Summit 2018 hosted by the Solutions Journalism Network from November 8-11 in Sundance, Utah. Her articles have been published with National Geographic and Yes! Magazine. She spent a year on the Pacific island-nation of Kiribati as a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow (2015-16), covering how its communities are responding to sea-level rise and decades of strip-mining.
Rebecca Heisman, 31, is a freelance science writer based in Walla Walla, Washington, and will attend the Science Writers 2018 conference hosted by the National Association of Science Writers from October 12-16 in Washington, D.C.
Heisman has covered conservation and wildlife stories for publications including bioGraphic, Hakai Magazine, Audubon, and Sierra, as well as doing institutional science writing for organizations such as the American Bird Conservancy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the American Ornithological Society (she has a thing for birds). As a freelancer living in a rural area, she’s excited for the opportunity to attend a national science writing conference and reconnect with her professional community.
Stay tuned: Cantieri and Heisman will share insights from their conferences with NSWA in the future.