Narragansett, RI — September 20, 2001 — The first Metcalf Institute Environmental Reporting Fellowship has been awarded to Suzannah Gonzales of Providence by The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting at the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography. The fellowship supports a minority journalist to study marine and environmental science at URI and work as an environmental reporter for a National Public Radio member station.
Gonzales, formerly a reporter at The Providence Journal, will be based at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) for four weeks while she studies marine and environmental science and develops story ideas in preparation for a nine-month position as an environmental reporter for WRNI in Providence. Funded in part by The Rhode Island Foundation, the fellowship was created to increase the number of minority journalists who have been trained in science to report on science-based news.
Prior to working at The Providence Journal, Gonzales worked at The Washington Post and for Voice of America. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she is interested in covering science news of concern to Rhode Island communities including urban sprawl, environmental justice, and vector-borne diseases.
While she is conducting independent research at URI, Gonzales will work with her mentor, GSO professor of oceanography John King of West Kingston. On the URI Kingston Campus, her contact will be URI plant sciences professor Roger LeBrun of West Kingston
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The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, based at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, provides science training for journalists including another fellowship program, the Annual Workshop for Journalists. The Metcalf Institute, named for the late Providence Journal publisher, Michael P. Metcalf, is funded by the A.H. Belo Corp., the Providence Journal Foundation, the Philip L. Graham Fund and the Telaka Foundation.
For more information about the Metcalf Institute call 874-6211 or visit http://www.gso.uri.edu/metcalf.
Contact: Lisa Cugini, (401) 874-6642, lcugini@gso.uri.edu