Laura Stephenson Carter
Science writer Laura Stephenson Carter is the managing editor for the NIH CATALYST at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She was the assistant director of publications at Dartmouth Medical School and associate editor of DARTMOUTH MEDICINE magazine from November 1999 to January 2009. She also created (in 2005) and oversaw DARTMOUTH MEDICINE's editorial internship program.
From 1995 to 1999, she was a public affairs coordinator and legislative specialist for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and also contributed occasional articles to the magazine as a freelancer-most significantly a cover feature about a member of the Dartmouth Medical School faculty who flew on the space shuttle Columbia.
Before moving from New Jersey to Vermont in 1994, she wrote articles for NATURAL HISTORY magazine and other publications; was a contributing editor to an engineering magazine; edited a science newsletter for a biological research station in New York State; and authored a children's book on plastics recycling—HOW ON EARTH DO WE RECYCLE PLASTIC?
Although Laura has been a writer for as long as she can remember—crafting stories and creating comic books as a child and writing for her high school and college newspapers—she only began her science journalism career in the early 1990s. Before that, she directed the activities of a New Jersey advocacy group that lobbied for changes in public policy affecting families; was a membership development consultant for a national women's organization; and worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Laura is also on the board of directors of the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve and Biological Research Station, located in Rensselaerville, N.Y. She has served on the board of directors of the Central Vermont-New Hampshire Valley Chapter of the Red Cross; was a member of the Red Cross Disaster Action Team; was once a Girl Scout leader; and has been a member of other boards, including the New England Society for Healthcare Communications, a homeless shelter in New Jersey, and the School for Field Studies in Beverly, Mass.
Laura holds a B.A. in psychology and biology from Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., and an M.A. in science journalism from New York University. She has won national awards for her work, including for her cover feature in the Summer 2003 issue of DARTMOUTH MEDICINE—"Puzzling Over Medical Mysteries," which provides an inside look at a little-known aspect of medical practice, the Morbidity and Mortality Conference. Maybe it's not a coincidence that Laura loves reading mysteries and watching television shows like CSI.
Laura can be reached by e-mail at laura.carter124@gmail.com.