Alison Kentish

Freelance Science and Health Journalist

United States

Journalist. Researcher. Storyteller. Listener.

I have worked in television, radio, online and print journalism. While I have anchored live television newscasts and other programs, I am a field reporter at heart. I have gone out to sea with Saint Lucian fishers as part of a reporting series on the impact of rising ocean temperatures. I have spoken to protesting indigenous leaders on the fringes of international climate meetings. I spent a week interviewing storm survivors in Dominica on the disaster beat and I have spent many hours in court and the living rooms of grieving families, as I covered crime and justice.

I believe in the beauty and power of words and have always thought that even the most complex, technical issues can be engaging and impactful for a mass audience, if we ensure that people - their lives and their experiences - are at the centre of these topics.

My first degree is in Criminal Justice and I completed the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's Master of Arts degree in Science and Health Journalism with a focus on climate change, public and mental health. I won a Columbia thesis award for my investigation into mangrove restoration for building climate resilience.

I have reported for Helen Television in Saint Lucia, Latin-American television network teleSUR, the Inter Press Service’s Caribbean Climate Wire and AlertNet, the humanitarian news arm of Reuters.

I have also conducted journalism training and hosted panel discussions for the United Nations Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, the UNESCO Office in Saint Lucia and the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

I am based in the eastern US and looking forward to a new round of reporting on climate, health, science and justice .

I am available for commissions. Please contact me at alikentish@gmail.com.

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Portfolio

Climate Change/Environment/Biodiversity

Bbc
A Caribbean island's quest to become the world's first climate-resilient nation

On a sunny Monday morning in September 2017, 67-year-old Faustulus Frederick was adding the finishing touches to a traditional wooden sculpture at his home in Salybia, on the Caribbean island of Dominica. The small village of Salybia is one of eight that make up the 3,700-acre (1,500-hectare) Kalinago Territory - the home of Dominica's indigenous people.

Bbc
The Caribbean mangrove forest that defied destruction

On a sweltering summer day in 1994, an ancient mangrove forest on Union Island was ripped apart. A foreign investor had started the foundation work for a hotel, marina and golf course in Ashton lagoon on Union Island, one of the 32 Grenadine islands which dot the clear, blue waters of the southern Caribbean Sea.

Inter Press Service
06/11/2021
UN Scientists: Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss. Two Parts. One Problem.

Earth is in the throes of multiple environmental crises, with climate change and the loss of biodiversity the most pressing. The urgency to confront the two challenges has been marked by policies that tackle the issues separately. Now, a report by a team of scientists has warned that success on either front is hinged on a combined approach to the dual crises.

New Scientist
Dolphins spotted trapping fish in mud rings in the Caribbean

Bottlenose dolphins are clever hunters. Some work alongside human fishers, coaxing fish ashore. Others use shells to catch their food. In the Florida Keys, some use "mud rings" - and now the behaviour has been documented in the Caribbean too. The mud ring hunting strategy is a case of blindsiding prey.

Inter Press Service
09/08/2021
In a Watershed Year for Climate Change, the Commonwealth Secretary-General calls for Urgent,...

This November, five years after signing the Paris Agreement and pledging to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with a further target of below 1.5 degrees Celsius, world leaders will meet in Glasgow, UK amid COVID-19 pandemic shocks, rising hunger and an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that warns of ...

Inter Press Service
06/16/2021
Soil for Survival: Countries Commit to Halt Land Degradation

Asia-Pacific, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Combating Desertification and Drought, Editors' Choice, Environment, Featured, Global, Global Governance, Headlines, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, Latin America & the Caribbean, Natural Resources, TerraViva United Nations Combating Desertification and Drought Jun. 17 is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

Inter Press Service
05/13/2021
Latin America & the Caribbean Assess Climate Ambition and Action Ahead of COP26

The Dominican Republic opened the 2021 virtual Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week with a pledge to increase the country's climate ambition by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 27 percent and maintaining progress towards climate neutrality according to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Inter Press Service
04/23/2021
Youth Demand Action on Nature, Following IUCN's First-Ever Global Youth Summit

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Combating Desertification and Drought, Development & Aid, Editors' Choice, Environment, Featured, Global, Headlines, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, TerraViva United Nations, Water & Sanitation Environment - Following almost two weeks of talks on issues such as climate change, innovation, marine conservation and social justice, thousands of young people from across the globe concluded the first-ever International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) One...