Cascadia Daily News welcomes a new staff member to bolster our reporting in Whatcom and Skagit counties this summer.

Risa Aria Schnebly is our environmental/science reporter. She comes to CDN as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media Fellowship. CDN is one of 17 newsrooms in the U.S. hosting a fellow until August.

The 10-week program places science, engineering and mathematics students at media organizations, and fellows use their academic training as they research and report news, refining their ability to communicate complex scientific issues to the public.

“I’m looking forward to getting hands-on experience writing about science in a way that matters to the community,” Schnebly said.

Schnebly is a fifth-year PhD candidate at Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, where she does environmental social science research on extinction, ecological grief and environmental history through interviewing wildlife conservationists.

She also writes for ASU News and co-hosts a podcast called SciChronicles, which gives scientists a space to share personal stories about how they came to be scientists. Through all her work, she is committed to breaking down the idea of science as a monolith and finding the humanity behind it instead.

“Coming from a science department where so much research often happens without considering who it might affect, it’s especially exciting to be in a local newsroom where the point of the work we do is to serve local people,” Schnebly said.

Schnebly is half-Mexican and a fluent Spanish speaker. She is interested in writing stories about the environment, ecology, agriculture and farmwork.

She hopes this fellowship will help her dive into the world of science journalism, and she plans to freelance for outlets in the future.

Schnebly is also a paddleboarder, backpacker, rock climber and amateur ecologist. When she’s not writing, she’ll be wandering around Whatcom County’s mountains, lakes or tidepools, or playing her guitar at a local park.

Have a story idea? Reach Risa at risaschnebly@cascadiadaily.com.