The Board of Directors of the World Federation of Science Journalists is pleased to announce the appointment of Tim Lougheed as Interim Executive Director. Based in Ontario, Canada, he began his career with the Sault Star and the Windsor Star, subsequently working as a science writer for Queen’s University in Kingston. He has been a freelance science, technology, and medicine writer since 1991, producing articles that have appeared in Canadian Geographic, University Affairs, Canadian Medical Association Journal, New Scientist, Ensia, Nautilus, Environmental Health Perspectives, among others, as well as Canadian Chemical News, which he has edited for the past four years.
Lougheed has also been a member of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association for more than 30 years, serving three terms as its president, most notably during the challenging constitution transition that transformed this organization into the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada in 2016. He has also been involved with the World Federation of Science Journalists for the past two decades, initially as an organizer of the 2004 World Conference of Science Journalists in Montreal and for the past three years as the organization’s treasurer, a Board position from which he is stepping down to assume his new duties.
That post is being filled by Sharon Oosthoek, a Toronto-based freelancer with more than 20 years’ experience writing for daily newspapers, magazines, online news services, and non-governmental organizations. Her work has appeared in New Scientist, Canadian Geographic, Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, cbc.ca, and Chemical & Engineering News. She is also contributing writer with Detroit Public Television’s Great Lakes bureau, Great Lakes Now, and Science News for Students. Sharon is an alumnae of the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources, has served as a board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, and is a member of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada. She has won various journalism awards, most recently a 2019 American Academy for the Advancement of Science Kavli Science Journalism Award for children’s science writing.