MICHAEL CASEY
For the past 25 years, I have written on everything from illegal logging to Formula One racing in the United States, Dubai, Jakarta and Boston. My years of experience in the United States and abroad would bring a fresh voice and unique perspective to the board.
I got my start like a lot of young reporters in the day, covering murders and corrupt politicians at a small daily in New Jersey. I was lucky enough to spend much of the next decade covering the historic but troubled town of Paterson. You may know it from Alexander Hamilton and Rubin Carter. I watched the city knock down public housing developments, lose the schools to state control and give up its first black mayor to the federal prison system. Along the way, I covered the 9-11 terror attacks and several major plane crashes. But it often was the less dramatic environmental stories that caught my eye — especially efforts to bulldoze the wetlands in the New Jersey Meadowlands for a mall. That passion for environmental coverage took flight when I relocated to Indonesia in 2002, joining The Associated Press. Along with writing about the emergence of democracy and terrorism, I bore witness to the wholesale destruction of the environment, be it by illegal loggers or corporate mining companies. By 2005, I was covering the environment across Asia from my base in Thailand for the AP. I wrote about the region's rush to develop at the expense of its oceans, coastlines and forests. I saw firsthand the pollution in China — so thick you couldn't breathe. I spent time with forest rangers chasing down tiger poachers in Thailand. I spent evenings with laborers whose bodies were broken by years of dismantling ships on the shores of India. In 2010, I headed to Dubai with the AP, covering sports and the environment, watching cricket while writing on efforts by Saudi Arabia to go green and Oman to save its Arabian leopards. After getting my MA from Columbia University in science writing, I returned to AP to oversee our operations in Northern New England and write on the environment.
If elected, my agenda would be to:
GLOBALIZE: Work to expand the reach of SEJ beyond the United States. SEJ has done an admirable job of highlighting environmental issues in the United States and, of late, has been a leading voice in the fight for press freedom and transparency. But SEJ should extend its reach beyond the United States. If elected, I would work to give the SEJournal a greater global voice. I would work more closely with international organizations like the International Federation of Environmental Journalists, the Earth Journalism Network to encourage collaboration among American and international journalists on projects. I would work to bring more environmental journalists to the United States for training and look for funding from groups like the Ford Foundation for these efforts. I would also encourage the annual conference to incorporate a more international feel, highlighting global issues like wildlife trafficking and offering workshops on how to localize these issues that often are a world away.
DIVERSIFY: If the SEJ wants to survive over the long term, it needs to diversify. That means introducing this amazing organization to a new generation of journalists, especially journalists of color. Like so many journalism organizations, the SEJ is predominantly white. If I am elected, I will join the efforts already underway by SEJ to find ways to reach a younger and more diverse audience.
EDUCATE: The one thing I have learned in the past few years as a journalist is the technology is changing fast and most of us don't have the time or money to keep up. That especially is the case for freelancers, who seem to outnumber staffers these days. If elected, I would work to secure funding so that the SEJ could train the next generation of multimedia journalists, inspire the next great writers and give journalists the skills they need to do investigations.
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