Annie Ropeik, a regular contributor to The Maine Monitor’s environment and energy reporting, has been awarded one of five Journalism Fellowships for 2023 by the Environmental Solutions Initiative at MIT. Ropeik will report on a climate change-related project, to be announced, working in partnership with The Maine Monitor.

Ropeik writes the Monitor’s Climate Monitor newsletter every other week, rotating with Monitor environmental reporter Kate Cough. She is also a freelance writer for the Monitor and other publications. She is a board member with the Society of Environmental Journalists and assistant director of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a reporting collaborative. Ropeik is based in Portland and was an award-winning public radio environmental reporter for several years. 

“I’m thrilled to join a skilled group of journalists in my MIT fellowship cohort, and I’m very grateful to the Monitor for supporting my project, which we hope will benefit readers across the state,” Ropeik said. 

“This is great news for Annie and great news for our readers. It’s another big step forward in the Monitor’s stellar coverage of climate change and the environment,” said David Dahl, the editor of the Monitor.

Coverage of Maine’s environmental challenges has long been a focal point for the nonprofit newsroom. Most recently, the Monitor published the “Unstoppable Ocean” project on the impact of rising sea levels on Maine’s coastline by Cough and photographer Alex MacLean thanks to funding from the Pulitzer Center, and a Marina Schauffler series funded by the Doris O’Donnell Innovations in Investigative Journalism Fellowship at Point Park University called “Invisible and Indestructible” about the forever chemicals better known as PFAS. 

The newsroom is approaching the one year anniversary of its popular Climate Monitor newsletter, which readers can sign up for, along with the Monitor’s other free newsletters, right here.