Bio
When I graduated from college, I thought I wanted to be a biologist. I lived in Norway and Japan for a while, started a Ph.D., decided I didn’t really want a Ph.D., and thought maybe I’d be a science journalist instead. I learned how to do that in the graduate program in science writing at the University of California–Santa Cruz. After the Santa Cruz program, I covered health at U.S.News & World Report for four years, then was a writer and editor at National Geographic for a year and a half.
I started doing a little freelance writing in 2003, and now that’s my full-time job. I’m most excited about oceans, big furry animals, whales, insects, plants, conservation, fisheries, birds, evolution, archaeology, flight, and whatever topic I happen to have written about most recently. I’ve written for Smithsonian, Science, the Washington Post, Washington Post Express, the Monterey County Herald, and others. One of my Smithsonian stories was picked for the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 anthology.
I love Washington, D.C., and live five miles away from the house in Maryland where I grew up. But other places are fun, too. I’ve been to six of the seven continents and have high hopes for Antarctica. It is unwise for people who live in exotic places to casually invite me to visit. (I get that from my parents.) I enjoy singing, knitting, Norwegian folk dance, and – professionally – calling smart people with cool jobs and asking them dumb questions about their work.