Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting have partnered to connect journalists reporting on climate change with leading researchers and students studying climate change communication. The Pulitzer Center supports a competitive fellowship program, giving Yale students an opportunity to work directly with Pulitzer journalists as part of a training program in Washington, D.C. As partners, YPCCC and the Pulitzer Center collaborate to produce, promote, and distribute climate-focused content to a wide national audience. 

Current & Past Fellows

2024 Fellow Zaya Delgerjargal: Traveling to Bayankhongor, Mongolia, Zaya will report on changing nomadic life as the result of global climate temperature shifts. Zaya is also a 2023 Diversity Fellow for the Society of Environmental Journalists. She is currently pursuing her MA in Environmental Management at Yale.

2023 Fellow Maggie Wang (Yale Law ’25) reported on New Clark City– a disaster-resilient urban development for her project Climate Change and the Future of Cities: A View From the Philippines– Maggie explored whether New Clark City is a climate solution, or another iteration of the government’s “edifice complex.”

2022 Fellow Grace Cajski (Yale College ‘24) spent a month on Oahu and the Big Island researching how ancient Hawaiian fishponds can, will, and have interacted with climate change for Fishpond Aquaculture in a Warming World.

2021 Fellow Irene Vázquez (Yale College ‘21) told the stories of the Black and Indigenous peoples of coastal Louisiana following a theme of organizing across differences, published in Big Oil’s Big History.

2020 Fellow Blanca Begert (F&ES ‘20) explored Amazonian land sovereignty in Restricted Access: Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, the Shipibo people are battling conservation authorities to reclaim management of their land.

2019 Fellow Emma Johnson (F&ES ‘20) investigated the environmental, social, and economic impacts of hydropower in Bhutan in her story map, Unstoppable Rivers: Bhutan’s quest for energy security and development in a changing climate. 

2018 Fellow Rohan Naik (Yale College ‘18) researched how air pollution in London impacts the city’s most vulnerable residents in his article, Silent killer: In London, air pollution has become a matter of life and death. 

2017 Fellow Elham Shabahat (F&ES) explored the impact of climate change on the Rwandan mountain gorilla and people living near its habit in Rwanda: Parks, People and Climate Change, and Rwanda: Complexities of Conservation in Akagera. 

Campus Consortium Partnership with YPCCC

Additionally, as part of their Campus Consortium Partnerships, the Pulitzer Center collaborates with YPCCC to bring leading environmental journalists to the Yale campus to give public presentations and lead seminars for Yale faculty and students.

The partnership has hosted numerous events, including:

• A lunch and info session with Pulitzer-funded journalist Karl Ilagan, the Pulitzer Center’s Libby Moeller, and 2023 Fellow for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting Maggie Wang, in January 2024.
• A discussion on science writing with Honolulu Civil Beat reporter Claire Caulfield and 2022 Fellow for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting Grace Cajski, in the fall of 2022.
• A panel on the unintended consequences of tropical forest carbon offset projects, including 2020 Fellow for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting Blanca Begert, in 2021.
• A talk on seawater challenges and the climate by Emma Johnson, 2029 Fellow for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, and Chris Burdick, acclaimed Pulitzer journalist, in early 2020.
• A conversation with award-winning journalist Stephanie Hanes on cross-cultural communication and miscommunication about environmental conservation in Africa, in December of 2017.
• A climate change radio journalism workshop hosted by Yale Climate Connections and the Pulitzer Center, where students from across Yale University were invited to spend the day learning about climate reporting and honing their own pitches with guidance from climate change journalists, in March of 2017. 
• A talk by Yale College alumnus and Science Magazine journalist Eli Kintisch on his work in the Arctic and on climate communications in December 2016.