Ithaca College

Sandra Steingraber, will speak on “The Importance of Journalism and Independent Media in an Age of Ecological Crisis” on February 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Park Hall Auditorium. Her talk is sponsored by the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM).

Steingraber is the author of “Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment.” An expert on the environmental causes of cancer and reproductive problems, Steingraber is herself a survivor of bladder cancer, a disease linked to chemical pollutants. After “Living Downstream” was published, “Ms.” magazine named her a “woman of the year” and the Sierra Club called her “the new Rachel Carson.” A documentary film based on “Living Downstream” will be released this spring.

A poet as well as a scientist, Steingraber is a powerful writer and in-depth researcher. She was a science reporter for a major Detroit newspaper and is now a columnist and contributing editor for the independent “Orion” magazine. Her book “Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood” is both a memoir of her pregnancy and an examination of environmental threats to fetal development. She was a featured expert in the Bill Moyers PBS documentary “Kids and Chemicals: Are We Poisoning Our Children?”

Since 2003, Steingraber has served as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence in Ithaca College’s Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies.

Based in the Roy H. Park School of Communications, PCIM is a national center for the study of media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations.