Cristine Russell is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written about science, health and the environment for more than three decades. She was a former national science reporter for The Washington Post and The Washington Star and is the current President of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, a group of distinguished journalists and scientists dedicated to improving science news coverage for the general public. Ms. Russell is also a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and a contributor to A Field Guide for Science Writers (2006). She serves on the boards of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Commonwealth Fund and Mills College. She is an honorary member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and has a biology degree from Mills College. She was a Spring 2006 Fellow at the KSG Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Her research focuses on the future of science writing and how to improve news media coverage of controversial scientific issues, from climate change to avian flu. She is organizing workshops for reporters and scientists and planning a book on current controversies in science, health and the environment.