Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher is a reporter on NPR's Science Desk, where she reports on outbreaks, natural disasters, and environmental and health research. Since coming to NPR in 2011, she has covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, embedded with the Afghan army after the American combat mission ended, and reported on floods and hurricanes in the U.S. She's also reported on research about puppies. Before her work on the Science Desk, she was a producer for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered in Los Angeles.
Hersher was part of the NPR team that won a Peabody award for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and produced a story from Liberia that won an Edward R. Murrow award for use of sound. She was a finalist for the 2017 Daniel Schorr prize; a 2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, reporting on sanitation in Haiti; and a 2015 NPR Above the Fray fellow, investigating the causes of the suicide epidemic in Greenland.
Prior to working at NPR, Hersher reported on biomedical research and pharmaceutical news for Nature Medicine.
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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is fending off accusations that he misused taxpayer funds and maintained improper ties to companies regulated by the EPA. -
In many parts of the world, it is illegal to shoot a brown bear with cubs. The restrictions have made mother bears more likely to spend an extra year with their cubs. -
The man hoping to help lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, is a former lobbyist for coal and natural gas companies. As a young EPA lawyer, he worked on hazardous chemical rules.
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A review by the RAND Corporation finds little evidence as to whether many popular gun control policies do or don't affect gun violence. In many cases, solid studies just haven't been done. -
Oxygen is a precious resource for dolphins. A new study suggests they use it efficiently by remembering what they learn during a dive, then applying that information to future foraging expeditions.
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Michael Honeycutt, the top toxicologist for Texas, is the latest chair of the EPA's science advisory board. But some scientists warn his views align more with industry than with scientific consensus.
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Major outdoor shows in Colorado and Pennsylvania put a complex and divided American conservation movement on full display. But some see shared values beneath frequently political exteriors. -
Two new studies confirm that an outbreak of deadly Legionnaires' disease in Flint, Mich., was caused by the city's water crisis in 2014 and 2015. -
In comments to a Tulsa radio host in February 2016, then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said he feared President Trump would use executive orders unconstitutionally if he were elected. -
A gravely ill man arrives at the hospital, alone and unconscious, with a tattoo across his chest: "Do Not Resuscitate." It sparks deep conversation about end-of-life care in America.
