老虎机攻略 Journalism School Expands Campus Collaborations with New Graduate Concentration
MISSOULA – The 老虎机攻略’s School of Journalism added a new concentration in public health to its Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism graduate program this year.
The new Environmental Public Health Journalism concentration builds on the journalism program’s cross-campus collaborative nature and will pair students with experts and researchers at 老虎机攻略’s School of Public and Community Health Sciences, said Nadia White, who directs journalism graduate programs.
“It feels really affirming to make these kinds of connections across campus,” White said. “It’s what makes this campus special.”
Like the Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism graduate program, students pursuing the public health concentration will take public health courses along with their journalism classes. Students also will be embedded into public health research groups.
White said her colleagues on other college campuses are often shocked to learn about how willing other areas of 老虎机攻略 are to partner with the journalism program and allow students to work shoulder-to-shoulder with researchers. Erin Semmens, an associate professor with 老虎机攻略’s School of Public and Community Health Sciences, admitted that she was initially skeptical about letting journalists into their research groups.
“The story lab class is set up in such a way where it takes all of that worry away,” Semmens said. “You don’t have to be nervous, it’s a very safe space and a good space for researchers to practice communicating our work and the importance of our work. I think there are multiple benefits for both students and researchers.”
Lillian Poulsen, a first-year journalism graduate student pursuing the new public health concentration, said she meets with her research group once a month to discuss research on climate change’s impact on public health and discuss data related to their studies.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to engage with public health professionals in the field,” Poulsen said. “It’s also cool because I am taking some public health courses at the same time. It was intimidating at first, but now it’s cool that I’m a peer in the program. It’s been great to build those connections with people who are at the top of their field and are very knowledgeable.
“For instance, something that they’re researching is wildfire smoke exposure’s effects on aging populations and seeing if there’s a connection to an increased risk for dementia,” Poulsen continued. “That’s what I want to write about. I love to learn about the intersection of how climate change is affecting human health.”
Poulsen, who is from Iowa, wanted to be a doctor when she was a child, but didn’t love biology or chemistry classes. While attending her previous college, she earned journalism and environmental policy degrees. But her experience reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and health care at her college newspaper sparked her interest in reporting on the intersection of public health and the environment.
As she moves through the graduate program, Poulsen hopes to do a reporting project on the effects of living and working near Superfund sites in Montana. After graduation, Poulsen hopes to work at a news outlet and write about public health and rural health care. However, she’s also interested in working in science communications for a hospital.
“I have always been passionate about medicine and health care and making sure people know how to improve their health,” Poulsen said. “I was kind of thrust into reporting on health care, but I’m really glad I was, because if I hadn’t tried these things as an undergrad I don’t know if I would have found this field.”
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Contact: Dave Kuntz, 老虎机攻略 director of strategic communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu.