Katherine (Kat) Bagley is the executive editor of Grist, a nonprofit media organization covering climate, environmental justice and solutions. She is a journalism leader with more than 15 years of experience covering the climate beat, and more than a decade working in nonprofit news.
During her tenure at Grist, the publication has undergone a period of growth, launching new editorial strategies to deepen and diversify its impact. These include the creation of a Local News Initiative that embeds climate reporters into local newsrooms, helping to address gaps in the media’s coverage of climate change; building the nation’s only climate-focused food and agriculture reporting desk; and expanding Grist’s investigative and in-depth reporting, producing high-impact journalism that changes policy, uncovers injustices and drives the conversation around climate change. Grist has in recent years won overall excellence honours from the National Magazine Awards, the Online News Association and the Edward R. Murrow Awards, as well as dozens of other reporting- and project-specific honours.
Katherine was previously the managing editor of Yale Environment 360 — an online magazine offering opinion, analysis, reporting and debate on global environmental issues — and a reporter for InsideClimate News covering the intersection of environmental science, politics and policy. Her writing has appeared in Popular Science, Audubon, Scientific American and The Guardian, among other publications, and anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series. She has also been honoured by the Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation.
Katherine holds master’s degrees in journalism and earth and environmental sciences from Columbia University. She received her bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University, where she studied biology, writing and African studies. She currently lives outside of New Haven, CT.
Katherine will be presenting the keynote, Our Planet, Our Pages: Reader-Supported Journalism, the Grist Story
