EurekAlert!, a service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, presents: Communicating Science & Health News Across the Media Spectrum Sponsored by:
Agenda 8:00 Registration opens, continental breakfast 8:25 Welcome and introduction of speakers Cathy O Malley, Project Director, EurekAlert! John Seng, President, Spectrum Science Communications 8:30 Speaker Presentations Randy Schmid, Science Reporter, The Associated Press Dr. Bernadine Healy, Health Editor, U.S. News & World Report Jim Lebans, Producer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation John Timpane, Commentary Page Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer David Braun, News and Editorial Services Director, NationalGeographic.com Rick Weiss, Science and Medical Reporter, The Washington Post 10:00 Question & Answer session Rea Blakey, Media Training Consultant, Spectrum Science Communications; Professional Public Speaker; President, TV Talks, Inc. 11:00 Program ends
Speakers Randy Schmid, Science Reporter, The Associated Press Randy Schmid is a Washington, DC-based science reporter for the Associated Press. Schmid began his career with the Associated Press in the Memphis, TN bureau in 1968, before transferring to Washington, DC in 1972. Prior to his work at the Associated Press, Schmid reported for The Citizen in Auburn, NY, and The Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY. During his career, Schmid has covered science, consumer affairs and transportation, and has served as both a reporter and assignment editor. Schmid holds a bachelor s degree in communications and earth science from the State University of New York at Albany, and a certificate in broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State University at Starkville. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union. Schmid was born in Carthage, NY, a hamlet on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains, where snowfall is measured in yards rather than inches. He enjoys weather history, weather in art, cooking and visiting Europe. Schmid may be contacted at rschmid@ap.org. Dr. Bernadine Healy, Health Editor, U.S. News & World Report Bernadine Healy, M.D., is health editor for U.S. News & World Report and writes the On Health column for the magazine. A Harvard- and Hopkins-trained physician, Healy is a past Director of the National Institutes of Health, where she started the Women's Health Initiative. She is currently a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and is a leader in patient care research and education. Dr. Healy may be contacted at bhealy@usnews.com. Jim Lebans, Producer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Jim Lebans has been a producer at Quirks & Quarks, the national science radio program on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio network, for the last ten years. He is part of a team of four people who assemble the onehour weekly program, which features interviews and documentary pieces on issues in all areas of science and technology. The program has been on air for thirty years, and has won many national and international awards. Lebans covers all areas of science for the program, but admits a particular interest in evolutionary biology, energy issues and computer technology. Lebans may be contacted at jim_lebans@cbc.ca.
John Timpane, Commentary Page Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer John Timpane is the Commentary Page Editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He came to this position in August 1997 after more than 20 years as a teacher of college English at Lafayette College, Rutgers University, the University of Southampton, Stanford University and elsewhere. He has a PhD in English and Humanities from Stanford. Throughout his undergraduate, graduate and scholarly career, he wrote op-ed and perspective pieces for magazines and newspapers, and he had a flourishing freelance writing career that included film scripts, interactive video scripts, books (It Could Be Verse, about poetry; Writing Worth Reading, about composition), poetry, essays (on biotechnology for Science) and research articles. He was also a writing coach at various companies and newspapers which is how he and the Inquirer first fell in love. He lives near Princeton, NJ, with his wife, Maria-Christina Keller (copy chief of Scientific American), and two children. Timpane may be contacted at jtimpane@phillynews.com. David Braun, News and Editorial Services Director, NationalGeographic.com David Braun started National Geographic News, the National Geographic Society's online daily news service, five years ago. The most popular section of the Society's Web site, National Geographic News receives 1.6 million visits per month and publishes 1,000 stories each year. Before joining National Geographic, Braun was the Washington correspondent for CMP Media's TechWeb, a daily news service. His previous positions include desk editor at UPI and Washington bureau chief for Independent Newspapers of South Africa, Africa's largest newspaper group. Braun may be contacted by email at dbraun@nationalgeographic.com. Rick Weiss, Science and Medical Reporter, The Washington Post Rick Weiss is a science and medical reporter for the Washington Post. He came to the Post s Health section in 1993 and moved to the national desk in January 1996, where he covers genetics, molecular biology, biomedical ethics and other topics in the life sciences. Before coming to the Post, Weiss was a staff writer for Health magazine in San Francisco. Before that he served for four years as biology and biomedicine writer at Science News magazine, a Washington, D.C.-based weekly. He also spent a year as a science writer for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Weiss, 51, earned a B.S. in biology from Cornell University in 1974, where he conducted research in entomology and agronomy. For ten years after that he
worked as a licensed medical technologist in hospital laboratories, specializing in microbiology, serology and blood banking. In 1985 he entered the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Masters in Journalism in 1987. He has written articles for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Science, Discover and other publications. He has won several awards, including the National Association of Science Writers Science-in-Society Journalism Award; the Science Journalism Award conferred by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild s Front Page Award. Weiss lives in Takoma Park, MD, with his wife, New York Times science writer Natalie Angier, and their nine-year-old daughter, Katherine. Weiss may be contacted by email at weissr@washpost.com. Rea Blakey, Media Training Consultant, Spectrum Science Communications; Professional Public Speaker; President, TV Talks, Inc. Rea Blakey serves as a Media Training Consultant for Spectrum Science Communications, and is the president and founder of TV Talks, Inc. She is the host of a national medical show, Discovery Health CME, airing on Discovery Health Channel. Before becoming a media consultant, Blakey served as an on-camera news personality for CNN, reporting on national and international health and medical issues. Before joining CNN, Blakey spent 13 years at Washington, DC s ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV, as an award winning health producer, reporter and anchor hosting one of the station s most popular segments Medical Alerts and Children s Hospital Update. She has covered a variety of health related stories, medical breakthroughs, innovative surgeries and public health issues. Blakey has served as health anchor for the Discovery Health Channel s historic Birth Day Live program and also as a media representative for a national symposium, co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, to develop guidelines for Arts in Healthcare a burgeoning new field. Among other noteworthy honors, Blakey has served as a speaker, host or panelist with numerous national and international healthcare organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization, U.S. Department of Agriculture, American Association for World Health Organizations, U.S. Administration on Aging and Alliance for Aging Research. Blakey may be contacted at reablakey@aol.com.