Congratulations to Emma Foehringer Merchant, ’22, for winning a Mary G. Hager Memorial Grant from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. The grant, worth up to $1,000, is awarded to early-career female journalists for projects that focus on the public health impacts of environmental issues. Emma’s project will focus on how California wildfires, driven and exacerbated by climate change, have led to increasing power outages within some communities.

Emma has long covered climate change and the energy sector for publications including the Washington Post, Inside Climate News, Canary Media, Greentech Media, and the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting, among other outlets. Her MIT thesis focused on programs that use incarcerated labor to fight fires throughout the United States. We’re thrilled to see her latest project once it’s published. Congratulations, Emma!