Bina Venkataraman
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Bina Venkataraman (born October 11, 1979) is an American science policy expert and journalist. She is currently the Editorial Page Editor of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' and a fellow at the
New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a think tank in the United States founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, educa ...
. She previously served as a senior advisor for
Climate Change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
Innovation under
President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's administration and advised the
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST w ...
on the Ebola epidemic.


Early life and career

Venkataraman was born in 1979 to Indian immigrants and grew up in Wooster,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. She was valedictorian of her class at Wooster High School. Venkataraman received her
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree from Brown University in 2002, studying
International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
and Environmental Studies. She then received a
Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...
Fellowship and worked as a Communications and Research Coordinator at the Rainforest Alliance from 2002 to 2005. There, she coordinated public-facing campaigns geared towards rainforest conservation, including a campaign to raise awareness around sustainable coffee and another to promote sustainable tourism. Venkataraman then became a Writing and Research Fellow through
Princeton in Asia Princeton in Asia (PiA) is a nonprofit organization that helps recent college graduates obtain yearlong jobs with educational institutions, businesses, media organizations, and NGOs throughout Asia. It is among the better-known organizations of it ...
, working in
Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
,
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
as a public health grant writer for an
HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
clinic. In 2006, Venkataraman began studying
Public Policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...
at the
Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
, where she received her
Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in 2008.


Public policy

From 2010 to 2019, Venkataraman served as the Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the
Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...
of
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. During that time, she served as Senior Adviser to
Eric Lander Eric Steven Lander (born February 3, 1957) is an American mathematician and geneticist who served as the 11th director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Science Advisor to the President, serving on the presidential Cabinet. La ...
, while he was co-chair of the
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST w ...
(PCAST). In that capacity, she co-authored a number of reports for the PCAST, including a 2010 report on K-12 education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), a 2011 report on ensuring American leadership in advanced manufacturing, and a 2012 report on drug discovery, develop and evaluation. From 2013 to 2015, she took a sabbatical to work in the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
under
President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
. There, she served as a senior advisor for climate change innovation and also worked to address the Ebola virus disease epidemic between 2014 and 2015. She serves on Brown University's Institute for Environment and Society as well as Brown's President's Leadership Council, advising Christina Hull Paxson. She is also a Future Tense and Carnegie Fellow at the
New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a think tank in the United States founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, educa ...
.


Writing and public engagement

Venkataraman is also a writer, focusing on climate change, environmental justice, and public health. Her work has been published in outlets like '' Slate'', ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', and ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
.'' From 2006 to 2010, she worked on the science desk at ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', first as a
James Reston James Barrett Reston (November 3, 1909 – December 6, 1995), nicknamed "Scotty", was an American journalist whose career spanned the mid-1930s to the early 1990s. He was associated for many years with ''The New York Times.'' Early lif ...
Fellow and then as a reporter. She is now the Editorial Page Editor of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
.'' In this role, Venkataraman has noted she aims to showcase the "diverse voices of our city and better showcase Boston’s groundbreaking ideas and knowledge, while holding our leaders and institutions accountable for meeting high expectations for public service." In March 2020, she oversaw the Editorial Board's criticism of
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
's response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States. In August 2019, she published her first book, ''The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age'', which explores how human societies can overcome shortsightedness to tackle emerging threats—from
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
to antibiotic-resistant superbugs—to better plan for the future. The book draws from research in
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
,
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
, and
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
to make the case that humans can better plan for the future by adopting certain practices. Venkataraman has also appeared on the TED mainstage and the Aspen Ideas Festival. In 2021, she founded '' The Emancipator'' with Ibram X. Kendi of
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
.


Selected works

* ''The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age'' (Aug 2019)
"Why we still need climate optimism"
(Sep 19, 2019) ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''
"Challenge for a Reckless Age: Be Better Ancestors"
(Sept 23, 2019) ''Grist''


Awards and honors

* Global Young Leader,
French-American Foundation The French-American Foundation is a privately funded, non-governmental organization established to promote bilateral relations between France and the United States on topics of importance to the two countries, with a focus on contact between upco ...
(2015) * Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters,
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
(2022)"2022 Honorary Degree Recipients"
USC Office of University Events, USC; May 13, 2022. Accessed May 25, 2022.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Venkataraman, Bina Living people The Boston Globe people Harvard Kennedy School alumni Brown University alumni Broad Institute people American environmentalists American science journalists Obama administration personnel American women writers of Indian descent 1979 births