2 join RJ staff for science and environmental reporting

There’s arguably no better time to add more science reporting to help inform our readers.

The Review-Journal is adding not one but two science reporting and writing fellows as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science mass media science and engineering fellowships.

The program places science, engineering and mathematics students at media organizations across the U.S. to research and report the news, thereby sharpening their skills to communicate complex scientific issues to the public.

Fellows Earyn McGee and Marina Philip will join the newsroom June 8 and will produce stories, videos and audio storytelling through mid-August.

McGee is a doctoral candidate in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona. She is passionate about field research, herpetology and social justice, and it’s reflected in her research, which focuses on how drought affects lizards in arid environments and also how to increase the representation of African-American women in natural resources careers.

She has been a Doris Duke Conservation Scholars graduate mentor and uses social media as a tool to communicate to the broader world about science.

McGee runs a popular social media game called #FindThatLizard. Every week, she posts a photo of a lizard camouflaged in its natural environment, and players have to find it.

She uses this game as an opportunity to teach people about lizards and “build a greater appreciation for these cool animals.” You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @Afro_Herper.

Philip is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her doctoral focus was analytical chemistry, specifically measurement of the molecules in single brain cells.

Philip grew up in the Pacific Northwest and attended Western Washington University, where she studied both biochemistry and journalism. She spent a few semesters in newsrooms in college and is excited to return to reporting.

You can find her on Twitter at @mureeenuh.

They’ll be writing about the pandemic, the environment, desert critters, water and land issues and more. Have science story ideas or tips? Please send them to newstips@reviewjournal.com. Use “science stories” as the subject line.

You can reach Philip at mphilip@reviewjournal.com. You can reach McGee at emcgee@reviewjournal.com.