On October 28, 2021, INMA and Google News Initiative (GNI) awarded their Elevate Scholarship to 50 news media professionals around the world. This series features these impressive media professionals who are shaping our industry.

Dorea Reeser didn’t set out to become a leader in the media world; she just wanted to pursue her passion for science. But along the way, she discovered her talent for engaging audiences.

Reeser was working on her Ph.D. in environmental chemistry when it all came together for her. After developing activities for Girls Rock Science, an event designed to give high school girls a hands-on research experience in a lab, and writing blog posts for Scientific American, she began hosting a popular chemistry podcast, the Collapsed Wavefunction. That led to creating a video explaining the adrenal glands for a Scientific American contest, and at that point she realised, “Science communication was what I wanted to do.”

She joined the niche publication Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) as an audience engagement editor four years ago. Today, as executive editor for audience engagement, she makes it part of her mission to inspire future scientists, science communicators, and journalists to pursue their dreams.

She is particularly interested in reaching out to underrepresented groups to ensure they find a home within the science journalism community.

“I aim to help make more diverse voices heard in our news coverage, as well as internally in our newsroom and the broader non-profit organisation we are a part of. Leading change in hiring practices to encourage a more diverse workforce is another goal of mine.”

To that end, she helped create editorial diversity and inclusion checklists that are being incorporated into an Inclusive Style Guide. Her hope is that other newsrooms and communicators will use these resources, too.

Editorial Director Amanda Yarnell noted that Reeser established herself as a leader from the moment she joined the team and has brought about valuable changes in the area of diversity and inclusion: “She’s catalysed innovative thinking about how to engage and build the diverse, inclusive audience C&EN needs to remain the world’s most valued source of chemistry news.”

Reeser also is cofounder of C&EN’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect Committee and led the development of C&EN’s e-mail course, Grad Student Survival Guide.

She is sensitive to the mental health challenges faced by many students, which led her to create and moderate Coping with Chaos, a Webinar and virtual workshop for students struggling with mental health. She also led and moderated C&EN’s Table Talks, an audience listening event series that helped readers through the early days of the pandemic.

While she continues creating and developing initiatives within C&EN, she also envisions those efforts having an impact on other organisations:

“In the future, I hope to share lessons our newsroom has learned through our diversity and inclusion efforts, including steps taken toward more inclusive hiring practices, and best practices and insights gained from ongoing source diversity tracking.”

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