Rick Borchelt

Rick Borchelt is executive communications director for the Pew-funded Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University. He's an award-winning (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Society for Government Communication, Society for Technical Communication) science writer whose career has included stints as media relations director for the National Academy of Sciences, press secretary for the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee, and special assistant for public affairs in the Executive Office of The President during the Clinton Administration. Borchelt's jobs in science communications and science public policy also include director of communications for the Department of Energy's Office of Science and director of communications and public affairs at The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. He spent a year abroad in Nairobi as executive speechwriter to the United Nations Undersecretary General and Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. He's a past president of the D.C. Science Writers Association and spent eight years as a member of the board of the National Association of Science Writers, receiving the board's special service award for developing a mentoring program for science writing students and novices in the field. An undergraduate biology major, Borchelt has done graduate work in both insect ecology and science communication, and he continues to lead natural history field walks and rambles in search of birds, botany, and butterflies. He has taught introductory journalism and principles of editing at the University of Maryland and science writing at the Bethesda-based Writing Center, and he is the former reports editor for the journal Science Communication. He lives in College Park, Maryland.

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