Elizabeth H. McGowan (born April 15, 1961) is an American journalist and author. With David Hasemyer and

Lisa Song Lisa Song is an American journalist and author. She won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, with David Hasemyer and Elizabeth McGowan, for their report on the Kalamazoo River oil spill. She works for ''ProPublica'', reporting on the ...

, McGowan won the 2013

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

for their report on the

Kalamazoo River oil spill The Kalamazoo River oil spill occurred in July 2010 when a pipeline operated by Enbridge (Line 6B) burst and flowed into Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. A break in the pipeline resulted in one of the largest inland oil spill ...

. She has worked as a freelance reporter and her work has been published by numerous newspapers, digital-outlets, and magazines such as, ''

Grist magazine ''Grist'' (originally ''Grist Magazine''; also referred to as Grist.org) is an American non-profit online magazine founded in 1999 that publishes environmental news and commentary. ''Grists tagline is "Climate. Justice. Solutions." ''Grist'' ...

; Yale Environment 360;'' '' E/The Environmental Magazine''; ''Washingtonian'' magazine; ''Intelligent Utility'' magazine; ''Outdoor America'' (magazine of the Izaak Walton League); the journal '' Appalachia;'' ''Capital Community News;'' the ''Gulf of Maine Times''; ''Mizzou'', the alumni magazine for the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

; ''Lore'', the magazine of the Milwaukee Public Museum; and ''Nature Conservancy'' magazine. McGowan met her husband, Don Looney, in 1991, when she decided to hike the entire

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian ...

after one of many cancer treatments; they married in 1997. Both of them are active volunteers.

Biography

McGowan was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, in 1961. She earned her

Bachelor of Journalism The Bachelor of Journalism (B.J.) degree is a degree awarded at some universities to students who have studied journalism in a three or four year undergraduate program. In the United States, some schools that do not award the B.J. degree instead c ...

at the Missouri School of Journalism in 1983.

Career and battle with cancer

In 1985, while living in Burlington, Vermont, she was diagnosed with melanoma, the same type of cancer that had taken her father, Ronald McGowan, who died of melanoma at age 44; she was 24 years old. Doctors removed the melanoma, but in late 1986, the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, and after removal, she enrolled in a trial of a new drug, interferon, the infusions and treatment lasting for 11 months. McGowan moved to Wisconsin and began working full-time in December 1987, for the

Janesville Gazette '' The Gazette '' is the daily newspaper of Janesville, Wisconsin. The newspaper is owned by Adams Publishing Group. The newspaper has a print circulation of 14,000 customers. It also runs a news website under the name GazetteXtra. History The ''G ...

. She continued to work even after a follow-up visit revealed that the cancer had returned. In 1989, an x-ray and biopsy confirmed that "little metastases" were present in both of her lungs. That summer, she went through 4 rounds of an experimental cocktail of chemotherapy drugs, called the Dartmouth Regimen. The normal treatment regimen consisted of 3 rounds, but after consulting with her doctors, they agreed to the additional round. She worked for the ''Gazette'' until the spring of 1991. That year, after hearing the good news that the cancer was gone, she decided to go to

Springer Mountain Springer Mountain is a mountain located in the Chattahoochee National Forest on the border of Fannin and Gilmer counties. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia, the mountain has an elevation of about . Springer Mountain serves ...

and the hike the entire

. McGowan met her husband, Don Looney, on the hike. McGowan returned to Wisconsin and in the mid 1990s, she worked for 5 years as a reporter for ''The Times Journal'', covering government and writing feature articles. However, in 1994, her fight with cancer returned, this time invading her liver, requiring surgery. She fully recovered. In August of 2000, in celebration of 5-years of being cancer-free, she used her experience to raise funds for the Waukesha Memorial hospital, by riding her bicycle, solo, from coast to coast. She called her trek, "Heals on Wheels." McGowan began her bicycle trip from Astoria, Oregon, to the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia, along the

TransAmerica Trail U.S. Bicycle Route 76 (USBR 76) is a cross-country bicycle route east of Colorado in the United States. It is one of the two original U.S. Bicycle Routes, the other being U.S. Bicycle Route 1. USBR 76 runs from the Midwestern state of Kansas ...

, a 4,250-mile ride. She finished the trek in November, at the

Chesapeake bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

. In 2020, she wrote a book on her experience with cancer titled, ''Outpedaling the Big C: My Healing Cycle Across America.''

2013 pulitzer prize

In 2010, McGowan joined the staff of

InsideClimate News ''Inside Climate News'' is a non-profit news organization, focusing on environmental journalism.Curtis BrainardInsideClimate wins a Pulitzer ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (April 16, 2013). The publication writes that it "covers clean energy, c ...

, a non-profit news organization, as their Washington, D.C. correspondent. During her tenure with InsideClimate, she won the 2013

with David Hasemyer and

for their report on the

. The 3-part series, and follow up stories, were the result of a 15-month investigation on pipeline safety and ''

Dilbit Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naphtha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines. Per the Alberta Oil Sands ...

,'' a controversial form of oil''.'' In the cover letter for entry to the prize, dilbit is described as "a thick Canadian hydrocarbon called bitumen that is diluted with liquid chemicals so that it can flow through pipes." The pipeline already had corrosion problems and it was more than a week before the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

knew that they were dealing with dilbit, because the pipeline operators weren't required to tell first responders in the event of a spill; dilbit is different from normal oil, in that the chemicals evaporate and the thick, different form of oil, sinks to the bottom and is very difficult to clean up. The series and follow-up reporting is listed below. * "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 1," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News'', June 26, 2012. * "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 2," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News'', June 27, 2012. * "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 3," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News'', June 28, 2012. * "Epilogue: Cleanup, Consequences and Lives Changed in the Dilbit Disaster," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News'', June 29, 2012. * "New Pipeline Safety Regulations Won't Apply to

Keystone XL The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta ...

," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News, July 26, 2012.'' * "Angry Michigan Residents Fight Uneven Battle Against Pipeline Project on Their Land," David Hasemeyer, ''InsideClimate News'', September 12, 2012. * "Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology," Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News, September 19, 2012.'' * "EPA Worries Dilbit Still a Threat to Kalamazoo River, More than 2 Years After Spill," David Hasemeyer, ''InsideClimate News'', October 11, 2012. * "Keystone XL Would Not Use Most Advanced Spill Protection Technology," Lisa Song, ''InsideClimate News, December 20, 2012.'' * "Little Oversight for Enbridge Pipeline Route that Skirts Lake Michigan," Lisa Song and David Hasemyer, ''InsideClimate News, December 27, 2012.'' When the 2013 Pulitzer prize winners were announced, ''InsideClimate News'' was one of the least known of the digital news organizations; Politico's headline described the win in their headline, "For a scrappy environmental-news startup, journalism's most prestigious award." Digital-only prizes had only been awarded since 2009 and very few had won. According to the cover letter, in the entry for the prize, the investigations stemmed from research that Lisa Song had originally began, and McGowan and Hasemyer joined in shortly after. In 2013, after winning the pulitzer prize, she left ''InsideClimate News to'' write her book on her experience with cancer titled, ''Outpedaling the Big C: My Healing Cycle Across America,'' which was published in 2020.

Awards and recognition

* 2007 2nd place, for Public Service and Investigative News, Cleveland Press Club's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards, Crain Communications' ''Waste and Recycling News,'' "H-2B: A Question of Labor." * 2012 Finalist for the Scripps Howard Nation's Best 2012 Journalism Awards, for Environmental Reporting, (with Lisa Song and David Hasemyer) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," ''InsideClimate News.'' * 2012 Honorable Mention, John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, (with Lisa Song and David Hasemyer) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of." * 2013 Winner James Aronson Award for Social Justice Reporting, (with Lisa Song and David Hasemyer) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," ''InsideClimate News.'' * 2013 Deadline Club, NYC Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for Reporting by Independent Digital Media (with Lisa Song) for "Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," ''InsideClimate News.'' * 2013 Winner

, (with Lisa Song and David Hasemyer), for their 3-part series, "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," ''InsideClimate News.'' The e-book on the same topic received the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award * 2017 The National Press Club featured McGowan in their "spotlight" issue, Winter 2017 According to a list of reporting awards on the ''Renewal News'' website, the “Dilbit Disaster” series also won a digital media reporting award from the Deadline Club, the New York Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and honorable mention in the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Reporting presented at Columbia University.

Bibliography

* ''The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of,'' McGowan, Song and Hasemyer, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, October 19, 2016. * ''Outpedaling the Big C: My Healing Cycle Across America,'' Bancroft Press, 1st edition, September 6, 2020. * "Trailing Dreams: Magic Along the Appalachian Trail'',"'' featured as a chapter in the book, ''No Limits But The Sky,'' Appalachian Mountain Club Books, Christine Woodside,1st edition, October 21, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGowan, Elizabeth 1961 births Living people Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners Missouri School of Journalism alumni