Joan Meiners

Joan Meiners is an award-winning climate and environment reporter at The Arizona Republic, where she focuses on how climate change impacts life in the Southwest. With a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida, she transitioned from academic research to journalism through prestigious fellowships including ProPublica’s 2019 Local Reporting Network and MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative Journalism Fellowship. Her investigative series 'Polluter’s Paradise' exposed environmental injustices in Louisiana’s petrochemical corridor, winning the Nina Mason Pulliam Award and National Association of Science Writers’ Science in Society Award. Prior to joining The Arizona Republic, she covered water scarcity in Utah through Report for America and taught environmental journalism at UF. Her current work includes a five-part series on climate-resilient housing in Arizona and weekly stories connecting local communities to climate solutions.