Environmental Health Sciences is excited to announce two new changes to our growing team.
Longtime contributor Autumn Spanne has been promoted to newsletter manager. Spanne oversees production of more than a dozen daily and weekly newsletters on topics including environmental health, climate change, plastic pollution and energy. She comes well prepared for the task having spent a decade as part of the EHN curation team, which produces a daily aggregation of top environmental health and climate stories for the newsletters alongside original reporting from EHN and The Daily Climate.
“Our newsletters provide a comprehensive look at the most urgent environmental issues of our time, from emerging science on how toxic chemicals affect our health, to the climate crisis, to increasing equity and justice in environmental protection,” said Spanne. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with our staff and subscribers on ways to amplify our impact, welcome new audiences and make our newsletters as useful as possible.”
In addition to her role as newsletter manager, Spanne coordinates the EHN en Español initiative, which includes a weekly newsletter of environmental stories curated from Spanish language sources, and leads EHN’s bilingual journalism and related collaborations.
As a longtime environmental journalist, Spanne’s work has been featured in EHN and The Daily Climate, as well as The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Guardian, Reveal, the Christian Science Monitor, InsideClimate News and CNN. Spanne was a 2016-2017 Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a 2006-2007 fellow of the Metcalf Institute for Environmental and Marine Reporting.
Previously, Spanne taught English and journalism on the Navajo Nation and later worked as an editor at Youth Communication, an award-winning educational publishing company in New York that trains young people in writing and journalism. She holds a Masters in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a Masters in education from Western New Mexico University. Originally from California, she now lives in Barcelona.
Social media and engagement
Environmental Health Sciences is also excited to welcome Amanda VanJaarsveld as the organization’s social media and engagement coordinator. VanJaarsveld manages EHS’ interactions with its audience by implementing social media platforms’ content strategies. Some of her duties include developing social media campaigns, building community and creating new content.
“Our social media presence is important because it not only gives us the opportunity to connect with our audience but it’s become a key outlet to inform our community on the latest environmental health news,” said VanJaarsveld. “I’m looking forward to discovering new ways that we can engage our audience and educate our followers on the most urgent environmental issues.”
Amanda recently graduated from Michigan State University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in public relations. Throughout her time at Michigan State, she worked as a social media intern for the university’s Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. Upon her graduation, she joined Kind Traveler as the social media and editorial intern, where she wrote copy and created content for the company’s social media accounts.
Amanda is currently living in Michigan. She enjoys traveling, trying new foods, and doing activities outdoors, including skiing and hiking.