Position/Organization: freelance

Nancy Shute has morphed through many forms as a science writer: Editor and writer for national magazines, independent journalist, and instructor of science writing and multimedia journalism.

She directed science and technology coverage for _U.S. News & World Report_, where she was assistant managing editor. She also served as a senior writer for _US News_, covering health policy, neuroscience, pediatrics, infectious disease, and public health law. She now blogs for www.usnews.com, and is a contributor to _National Geographic, Scientific American_, and other publications. Shute trains journalists in the uses of social media and other new technologies, and teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins University’s Advanced Academic Programs. She is a frequent guest on national radio and television.

Prior to joining U.S. News in 1997, she was a correspondent for _Outside_ magazine and contributed to many other publications, including the _New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian, New Republic,_ and _National Review_. Shute graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s in English literature and received a master’s from Yale Law School in 1980. As a Fulbright Scholar, she founded the first bilingual independent newspaper in Kamchatka, Russia.

In November 2010, she will become president of NASW.