About

I’m the deputy managing editor at WABE, the NPR station in Atlanta.

As an editor, I love working with reporters to deepen their reporting and sharpen their writing. I have edited award-winning series; launched a training and workshop program at my station; and trained and coached reporters of all levels on accuracy, solutions journalism, beat reporting, writing for the ear, voicing, mixing and more. In 2023, I was a fellow in the Poynter Institute’s Public Media Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative.

My background is in environment reporting. As an environment editor and reporter, I worked on stories about water, energy, climate change, environmental justice and wildlife in California and Georgia. My stories took me from the Desolation Wilderness, to the U.S. Supreme Court, to the Okefenokee Swamp.

I’ve been a reporting fellow with Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism, the Metcalf Institute and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and a journalist-in-residence at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. I’ve won awards for reporting on coal ash, crude oil, wildfire, sea level rise, high school football player health and stargazing.

I am proud to serve on the Atlanta Press Club’s intern committee, and in the past have been a mentor with Next Generation Radio and a volunteer at Vox Teen Communications.

I’m from Atlanta, but spent enough of my 20s in California that I ended up with a San Francisco cell phone number and strong opinions on Dutch crunch bread.

I live in Atlanta with my husband, dog, and cat. In my free time I like gardening, cooking, and lifting.

I’m at msamuel-at-wabe.org.