Award-winning journalist Austyn Gaffney has joined VTDigger and the University of Vermont’s Center for Community News through a new reporting and instructing partnership. Gaffney recently completed a fellowship on The New York Times’ climate desk, where she produced stories on federal policy changes, rising sea levels, extreme weather events and more.
At VTDigger, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization based in Montpelier, Gaffney will focus on environmental science reporting. At UVM, she will mentor undergraduate students on environmental reporting through the Center for Community News, a nonpartisan organization working to grow and strengthen university-led reporting.
“Climate change is increasingly affecting many aspects of our lives here in Vermont — from farming, to health, to the economy and housing,” said VTDigger CEO Sky Barsch. “Austyn brings a deep understanding of environmental issues to this role, and Vermonters will be well-served by the stories she uncovers and explains through her reporting.”
Gaffney is a graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Kentucky.