#MediaMonday – Amanda Solliday
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from one of my favorite places to visit for work – Yuma! It is Amanda Solliday, reporter for KAWC, the NPR station in Yuma. Most of my work in Yuma has been statewide media relations for the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) and Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing (ACDHH). But most recently it was for HMA’s very own Scott Hanson and his book Who is Gym!
But back to Amanda!
Amanda is originally from Illinois. She bounced around the United States before landing in Yuma in 2014, and she started working at KAWC during the summer heat of 2015.
Amanda studied biology and environmental studies at Illinois Wesleyan University and crop and soil science at Cornell University. She also holds a degree in journalism from Indiana University. She began her career as a biologist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before switching her focus to science communication and journalism.
In her free time, Amanda enjoys reading fiction and spending time outdoors with her daughter and husband. She’s also slowly learning how to sew.
So, Amanda, time to share!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
I started working at KAWC as a reporter for the Arizona Science Desk, a new collaboration among the NPR affiliates in Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma. It’s really exciting to join this team and to play a role in increasing science coverage across the state.
Yuma, in particular, has so many fascinating voices to hear and stories to share. We are a community on the Colorado River, in the Sonoran Desert and near the US-MX border. In just my first few weeks on the science desk, I have climbed three stories of scaffolding to watch pronghorn, looked at nebulae through a telescope, and driven around the border area to observe wastewater flows.
Public radio inspires me as a professional and as a listener. It’s free and anyone can tune in and discover more about the world in which we live. Through science reporting, I feel quite fortunate to learn so many new things each day and to share what I find with others.
You can find me on Twitter @AjSolliday or email me at amanda.solliday@kawc.org.
