Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher (she/her) is a reporter on NPR's Science Desk, where she reports on outbreaks, natural disasters, and environmental and health research. Since coming to NPR in 2011, she has covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, embedded with the Afghan army after the American combat mission ended, and reported on floods and hurricanes in the U.S. She's also reported on research about puppies. Before her work on the Science Desk, she was a producer for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered in Los Angeles.
Hersher was part of the NPR team that won a Peabody award for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and produced a story from Liberia that won an Edward R. Murrow award for use of sound. She was a finalist for the 2017 Daniel Schorr prize; a 2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, reporting on sanitation in Haiti; and a 2015 NPR Above the Fray fellow, investigating the causes of the suicide epidemic in Greenland.
Prior to working at NPR, Hersher reported on biomedical research and pharmaceutical news for Nature Medicine.
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In the wake of the deadly flash floods in Texas, state leaders are exploring whether to install more flood warning sirens. Such sirens can save lives if they're part of a larger warning system. -
Gov. Greg Abbott and top emergency official in Texas are both members of a council advising the Trump administration on options for eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency. -
North Carolina, New Mexico and Texas have all suffered deadly floods in the last week after intense rain storms. Climate change is causing even more rain to fall during the heaviest storms. -
The National Climate Assessment is the most influential source of information about climate change in the United States. -
Hurricane forecasters and scientists rely on weather data collected and processed by Department of Defense satellites. The Navy has decided to stop sharing the data. -
Parts of the Midwest and East Coast have seen record-breaking temperatures this week. Climate change is making heatwaves more intense.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a long history of failing to help those who need assistance the most after disasters. Biden-era changes meant to fix some of those problems now face an uncertain future. -
A performance of the masterpiece will be transmitted into space on Saturday. The waltz has been associated with space travel since its inclusion in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. -
It's getting more common for a lot of tornadoes to form over a big area in a short period of time. But the total number of tornadoes each year in the U.S. is stable. -
Whether you get your forecast from an app on your phone, a website or a meteorologist on TV, most of the underlying information comes from the federal government. -
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cameron Hamilton, has been replaced. The shake up comes weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. -
Rural communities are scrambling after the Trump administration canceled billions in disaster grants. Many were counting on the funds for infrastructure fixes meant to withstand future disasters.
