The Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder has selected five journalists as Ted Scripps Fellows in Environmental Journalism for 2003-04.
The new fellows are Jeff Young, news bureau chief for West Virginia Public Broadcasting in Charleston, W. Va.; Vicki Monks, multi-media freelancer from Santa Fe, N.M.; Kim McGuire, environment reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock; Alex Markels, freelance journalist from Minturn, Colo.; and Eric Frankowski, assistant city editor for the Longmont (Colo.) Daily Times-Call.
The fellows will study environmental science, policy, law and journalism for two semesters at the university and will work on individual research projects. They also will meet in weekly seminars, attend a range of classes of their choice and participate in various field trips.
"As we begin the seventh year of this fellowship program, we are gratified that editors and reporters highly value this opportunity for journalists to study environmental issues at CU Boulder," said Len Ackland, co-director of the CU Center for Environmental Journalism.
Since 1997, the Scripps Howard Foundation has provided annual grants for its fellowships at CU, named for Ted Scripps, grandson of the founder of the E.W. Scripps Co. Ted Scripps distinguished himself as a journalist who cared about First Amendment rights and the environment.
Following is additional information about the incoming Ted Scripps Fellows:
Jeff Young is news bureau chief at West Virginia Public Broadcasting in Charleston, W. Va. In addition to covering general assignment news, he developed his own beat on environmental issues and natural resource extraction industries, earning a reputation as one of the state's leading environmental reporters.
He has filed stories for the NPR programs Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Living on Earth, including environmental pieces on clean coal technology, the coal slurry spill in Kentucky and connections between flooding and land use.
Among his awards are the regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association in 2001 and 2002 for his documentary and continuing coverage. He also is an adjunct professor of broadcast journalism at West Virginia University. Young has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va., and studied biology at the University of Charleston.
Vicki Monks is a prolific multi-media freelancer from Santa Fe, N.M., who works as a writer, reporter, photographer and radio and TV producer. Her articles and documentaries have tackled global environmental subjects, from the deforestation of Irian Jaya, or West Papua, Indonesia, to the problem of plastic trash in the ocean to 'radioactive runoff' from the forest fire that swept through the Los Alamos National Laboratory near her home.
Her work has appeared on National Public Radio, BBC Radio, CBS' 60 Minutes, PBS online, National Wildlife magazine and American Journalism Review. As a young TV reporter in Oklahoma City, she covered the Karen Silkwood/Kerr-McGee case. Monks has a long list of national and international awards and was a Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. A member of the Chickasaw tribe, she has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma.
Kim McGuire is the environment reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette where she also serves as part-time assistant city editor. She has received several awards for hard-hitting coverage that has spanned subjects ranging from diminishing Mississippi Delta aquifers to toxic waste and environmental justice.
Previously, she was a reporter at two Texas newspapers, the Beaumont Enterprise, where she covered erosion, marsh fires and swamp management and the Tyler Morning Telegraph, where she devised her own environmental beat reporting on a hazardous waste disposal facility in a poor black community, one of the state's first brownfields cleanup projects. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas A & M University.
Alex Markels has covered a wide array of topics for many major national publications, including Audubon, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Mother Jones, National Geographic Adventure, the New York Times, Newsweek, Outside and U.S. News & World Report. Among his environmental stories are pieces on sustainable business, the impact of global warming on archaeology and large energy companies' investments in wind power.
Before becoming a freelance journalist, now based in Minturn, Colo., he was a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Markels has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree in economics from CU-Boulder.
Eric Frankowski is assistant city editor at the Longmont Daily Times-Call. In addition to supervising a team of reporters, he writes in-depth investigative and environmental articles for the paper. During his tenure the paper has received several prestigious awards including the Colorado Press Association's General Excellence Award in 2001 and 2002.
He was a lead reporter on a project that won Scripps Howard's National Journalism Award for environmental reporting in 2002 and he has received awards for his science and environment reporting at the Times-Call, where he wrote and edited a bi-weekly science section before moving into his current position. Frankowski has a bachelor's degree with a double major in biology and Spanish and a master's degree in journalism from CU-Boulder.
The Center for Environmental Journalism at CU -- the first of its kind in the United States -- dates to 1992. For more information on programs or degrees, call (303) 492-5007 or visit the Web at .