About
For hire: Words, research and social media nous. Specialist in environment, health and international development. Soul not for hire.
Contact me @christineottery or email christineottery [at] gmail [dot] com
In a nutshell:
Overall, I have over six years of experience as a journalist. I have diverse skills as a researcher, editor, broadcaster, and social media whizz. Career highlights so far have been interviewing Ellen MacArthur, reporting from TED Women for Wired UK, and conducting research for George Monbiot. I have also worked as a campaigner for the Eradicating Ecocide campaign and the Guardian’s Biodiversity 100 campaign.
You can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and various other social media.
The long story:
As you can see if you click through on the infographic above, my career has had three stages. In chapter one of my professional life I was a watersports instructor (and ski bum). The work as an instructor was actually brilliant for teaching me how to be responsible for the safety of others, how to work hard, and how to sail.
I resolved that I wanted to be a travel writer, as I wanted to see more of this beautiful world we live in. I quickly ended up being a travel editor of a nationally-distributed ‘freemium’ adventure sports magazine. I was playing to my twin strengths of creativity and communication and so this was definitely a career peak. I felt I shone in this role. Also, I believed that I was spreading a good message of good health, joy and love of nature to our readers.
Then I decided it was time for a radical career change: I wanted to tackle serious topics with my journalism – especially the environment, which I was growing to care more and more about. So I joined a MA course in Science Journalism at City University London as a scholarship student in 2009. Since then, I have been specialising in science and society - in particular focusing on the environment. Clients include the Guardian, New Scientist, and Scientific American. (You can see me learning about green homes for a story in the Guardian, above.)
When I’m not doing journalism I dance, write poems, and get involved with activism. I love to frolic in the snow, sea or up hills.
