About Climate Watch

Climate Watch is KQED's multi-year initiative to provide in-depth coverage of climate-related science and policy issues, with a specific focus on California. Climate Watch is a true multimedia endeavor, centered around a comprehensive web climate portal, that provides a wealth of resources and a healthy discussion of climate change. You can listen for our regular radio features on The California Report and occasional Quest TV specials.

Climate Watch Staff & Contributors

Craig Miller
Senior Editor, Climate Watch

A veteran journalist at home on either end of the microphone, Craig Miller brings 25 years of diverse experience to Climate Watch. From producing and directing Emmy Award-winning documentaries on public television to his reporting for outlets such as CNN and National Geographic Channel, Craig's background makes him uniquely suited to head up the Climate Watch editorial team. As a correspondent for California Connected and KQED's The California Report, Craig has reported extensively on environmental and resource issues facing California and the American West.

Gretchen Weber
Associate Producer, Climate Watch

It says on Gretchen's resume that her key strength is "synthesizing complex information." Boy, is that an understatement (and a good thing that she doesn't list it under "hobbies"). Gretchen's fingerprints are on virtually every facet of the Climate Watch operation, from gathering radio sound to writing for the Web.

Prior to her arrival at KQED, she led wilderness expeditions in Australia and Alaska as an adventure travel guide. If the assignment for Climate Watch involves a backpack, she's first in line. Gretchen loves exploring the west but left her heart in her native New England, where she studied anthropology at Yale and freelanced for the Boston Globe. In her spare time, she snagged an M.A. in journalism from NYU.

Sasha Khokha
Central Valley Bureau Chief, The California Report

Sasha Khokha was born in Los Angeles to a Punjabi father and an Irish-American mother. She fell in love with radio wearing waterproof overalls, standing in a four-foot high stream trying to record jumping salmon.

After stints as a reporter in Alaska and with NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, Sasha joined KQED in 2004. An avid fruit and nut eater, Sasha is excited to report from Fresno - the raisin capital of the world.

Sasha is also a documentary filmmaker; her latest film, Calcutta Calling, follows the lives of girls adopted from India to rural Swedish-Lutheran Minnesota. Sasha is a graduate of Brown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Rob Schmitz
Los Angeles Bureau Chief, The California Report

Previously, Rob reported for KPCC (Southern California Public Radio), where he covered Orange County, as well as for Minnesota Public Radio, where he covered rural issues. He is a regular contributor to National Public Radio, Marketplace, and PRI's "The World."

Schmitz is also a freelance video journalist. He's worked on documentaries in China for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and New York Times Television. Schmitz was also a freelance writer in China, where he lived for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer and nearly another year as a journalist. His work has appeared on The Learning Channel, the CBC, and in publications including The New York Times, The Star-Ledger, and The Christian Science Monitor.

He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Minnesota.

Tom Banse
Regional Correspondent

Tom covers business, environment, public policy, human interest and national news across the Pacific Northwest. He reports from well known and out-of-the-way places in "Cascadia" where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events are unfolding. His stories are most often heard via the Northwest News Network, a consortium of the National Public Radio stations in Washington State, Oregon, and Idaho.

Before taking his current beat, Tom covered the Washington Legislature and state politics for 12 years for the state's NPR affiliates. Earlier, Tom worked in the Seattle bureau of United Press International. He got his start in radio at WCAL-FM, a public station in southern Minnesota.

Banse has received numerous awards for his work from the Society of Professional Journalists, Washington Press Association, Washington Associated Press Broadcast Contest, 1997 Radio Award of the international jury of the RIAS Berlin Commission, and the Arthur F. Burns Journalism Prize.

Lauren Sommer
Associate Media Producer, Quest

Lauren is a Bay Area native who recently returned from a stint in the Big Apple. Her background is in environmental policy and she is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Political Science and Policy. Most recently, she worked as a web writer and outreach coordinator for the non-profit group Environmental Defense. Lauren has had brief previous lives as a ski instructor in Tahoe, CA and as a travel writer for Frommer's in France. Her work has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Sierra magazine, and Boldtype.com. Lauren produces occasional radio stories for Climate Watch as well as regular radio and web content for QUEST.

Dan Brekke
Editor, KQED Radio News

Dan Brekke is an editor with KQED Radio News. He hails from Chicago, where he started his journalism career fresh out of high school as a copyboy for the Chicago Tribune. Subsequent stops have included The San Francisco Examiner, Wired News, Wired magazine, and TechTV. He has also worked as a freelance magazine writer, contributing pieces to Wired, The New York Times Magazine, Business 2.0, and Travel & Leisure Golf. A student of history, he has attended Illinois State University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Contact Climate Watch at climatewatch@kqed.org