Thanks to gifts by NASW members and other conference attendees supplementing NASW's annual Community Support Grant budget allocation, 27 grantees received financial support to attend this year's ScienceWriters2024 national conference.
Eight of these grantees will be participating in ScienceWriters2024 Early Access, the virtual only portion of the conference on Oct. 16-18. The remaining grantees will also be traveling to Raleigh for the in-person portion of the #SciWri24 annual meeting. Two are recipients of the inaugural Indigenous Community Support Grant offered by NASW.
NASW INDIGENOUS CONFERENCE FELLOWS
Lyric Aquino
Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh, Pueblo of Isleta and Jicarilla (Apache)
Freelance | Twitter | Bluesky
Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi
T’iis NásBąs/Goat Springs, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation
High Country News | Twitter
NASW CONFERENCE FELLOWS
Participating Virtually and In-Person
Ambika Kandasamy | Freelance
Bec Roldan | Freelance
BriAna Alvarado | Freelance
Brianne Linne | Freelance
Emily Payne | Freelance
Erin Rode | Freelance
Kavin Senapathy | Freelance
Lauren Pond | Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University
Lily Stewart | Freelance
Madhukara Kekulandara | University of Rhode Island | LinkedIn
Nina Elkadi | Freelance | Twitter | Website
Mureji Fatunde | Freelance
Rambo Talabong | Freelance | Twitter
Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman | GHOne TV | Freelance | Twitter
Sherry Chan | The Initium
Sophia Hartley | Science News | Twitter
Vagner de Alencar Silva | Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow | Agência Mural | Instagram
Participating Virtually
Gitonga Njeru | Freelance
Jasmine Ereng | The Brain Institute of America | LinkedIn
Kelsey Fitzgerald | Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno | Twitter
Lilian Khatondi Mukoche | MMUST FM 103.9 | LinkedIn
Maham Maqsood | Scientia Pakistan | LinkedIn
Niba Nirmal | Freelance | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok
Sean Cummings | Freelance | LinkedIn
Steve Williams | Freelance
For years, NASW has provided travel fellowships to help student and professional colleagues participate in the annual ScienceWriters conference. Since the pandemic, NASW has updated its Community Fund to offer support for teleconferencing equipment — as well as assistance with caregiving costs, such as for childcare or elder care. These conference fellowship grants reimburse up to $1,200 in travel expenses for in-person attendees and up to $350 in other expenses for virtual-only attendees.
A pilot effort this year, NASW provided additional fellowship spots for Indigenous writers looking to attend SciWri24. Recipients Aquino and Clahchischiligi received $3,000 each to help cover travel costs, accommodations, caregiving expenses, and more.
All NASW conference fellows receive complimentary meeting registration, and eligible individuals also receive a complimentary Professional, Student, or Affiliate membership to NASW for the coming year.
More than 200 applications were received for the conference fellowships, and more than 20 applications were received for the Indigenous fellowships. The volunteer judging team of Cassandra Willyard, Eli Kintisch, Elliot Richman, Jenny Cutraro, and Katie Mast gave generously of their time to ensure each submission was read by multiple reviewers.
As part of the grant, most conference fellows are asked to assist with NASW conference communications by reporting on specific conference sessions, photographing events, and other outreach duties. Reporting clips filed by past ScienceWriters conference fellows over the years can be searched at www.nasw.org/article/event_coverage.
About the National Association of Science Writers
Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~2,400 professional journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology. To learn more, visit www.nasw.org and follow NASW on LinkedIn and Bluesky. And join us in celebrating #NASW90th.
About ScienceWriters2024
Held each year, the ScienceWriters conferences provide a gathering place for professionals and students working across the science news landscape. From journalists to institutional writers, from editors to producers, from seasoned science communicators to those exploring science and technology beats, from mentors to students, the events provide opportunities for skills development, new tools practice, professional networking, and topic debates for every attendee.
A co-production of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW), and the Science Communicators of North Carolina, ScienceWriters2024 continues this tradition with craft and career workshops organized by NASW members, New Horizons in Science briefings curated by CASW, plus additional receptions and tours presented by partners and event sponsors. This is the first time the ScienceWriters annual conference, which began in 2005, has returned to a city: ScienceWriters2012 was hosted in Raleigh in partnership with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, North Carolina State University, Duke University, and other institutions in October 2012. Learn more here, then register for the conference at www.sciencewriters2024.org/register
