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Emilia Askari

Emilia Askari

Photo of Emilia Askari
Lecturer II in Environment, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Literature, Science, & Arts » Program in the Environment

Emilia Askari is a prize-winning reporter with the Detroit Free Press, where she has spent 17 years reporting about public health, the environment and other news. Over the years, her reporting has taken her from a bear's winter den in northern Michigan to the southern tip of Patagonia, earning more than a dozen state and national prizes and fellowships. Among the hundreds of stories Emilia has written was a piece about a Michigan woman who was denied insurance after she tested positive for one of the so-called breast cancer genes. The woman testimony before Congress helped shine a spotlight on the issue of genetic discrimination. Emilia has held numerous leadership roles in professional journalism organizations such as the Society of Environmental Journalists, which she helped found. She served for many years on the national council that accredits university journalism programs. She also is a long-time member of the advisory board to a science journalism fellowship program at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Emilia is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. A decade ago, she had the honor of spending a year on the UM campus as a Knight Wallace Journalism Fellow. For nine years, she has teamed up with another journalist to teach an undergraduate class in environmental and public health journalism through UM's Program in the Environment.