Background

David P. Ropeik, Consultant in Risk Perception and Risk Communication

• David Ropeik is an international consultant and speaker on risk communication and risk perception to government, business, trade associations, consumer groups, and educational institutions.


• He is a former Instructor of risk communication at the Harvard School of Public Health, and was co-director of the school’s professional education course ‘The Risk Communication Challenge’.


• He is co-author of RISK, A Practical Guide for Deciding What’s Dangerous and What’s Safe in the World Around You, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2002.


• He is author of the forthcoming book, The Risk Response: Why We're More Afraid of Some Things and Less Afraid of Others, to be published by McGraw Hill in the spring of 2010.

• He is creator and director of the program Improving Media Coverage of Risk, a training program for journalists.


• He teaches the course Critical Thinking on Environmental and Public Health Issues in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Extension School.

• He served as the risk communication member of the congressionally mandated Veterans Affairs Board on Dose Reconstruction, which oversees the joint Department of Defense and Veteran's Administration program to compensate veterans exposed to nuclear radiation.

• He was an Advisory Board member of the America Prepared campaign for terrorism and natural disaster preparedness, a joint effort of the Department of Homeland Security, the Advertising Council, the sloan Foundation, and a consortium of businesses and individuals.

• He is a judge for the Oakes Environmental Journalism Award, and a screening judge for the DuPont Columbia Awards.

• He was a television reporter in Boston for 22 years, specializing in reporting on environment and science issues. He twice won the DuPont-Columbia Award, often cited as the television equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. He also won a national Gabriel Award, a National Headliners Award (including a Best of Show additional honor), and seven regional EMMY awards.

• He has written Op Ed pieces and articles on risk, risk perception and risk communication for; The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Parade Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, Newsday, The Sacramento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, Health Affairs, Issues in Science and Technology (National Academy of Sciences), Congressional Quarterly, Commonwealth Journal, Post Graduate Medicine Magazine, The Journal of Environmental Affairs, and EMBO Reports (the journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization.) He co-authored an essay on risk perception and risk communication with Paul Slovic for the 2003 edition of Global Agenda, the magazine of the World Economic Forum.


• He has been cited on issues of risk perception in: The Economist, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, TIME Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, The Boston Globe, The Providence Journal, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Oregonian, The Seattle Intelligencer, The Miami Herald, The Denver Post, The Baltimore Sun, Macleans Magazine, New Scientists Magazine, Prevention Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Money Magazine, and by the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Knight Ridder news services. He has been interviewed on risk perception by ABC “Nightline”, National Public Radio, NBC “Dateline”, ABC “20/20”, Fox News, CNN, CNN International, BBC, CBC, CNBC, Voice of America, Focus (the German newsmagazine), and dozens of regional radio stations nationwide.


• He has taught courses on media coverage of risk issues at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, the Neiman Fellowship Program at Harvard, the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship program at MIT, Boston University’s Program in Science Journalism, the Emerson College program in Health Communication, and to the National Association of Science Writers, the Council for the Advancement of Science Writers, and the Society of Environmental Journalists.


• Between 1998 and 2000 he authored the science column How and Why in The Boston Globe, syndicated by The New York Times. That column appeared on MSNBC.com from 2000-2002. He currently writes a column entitled “The Fenway Insider” for Boston.com, and occasional science articles for The Boston Globe. He has been host of the nationally-syndicated NPR public radio program The Connection, and guest host of a radio talk show on WBZ AM, Boston.

• He has Bachelors Degree (’72) and Masters Degree (’73) in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

• He was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, 1994-95, and a National Tropical Botanical Garden Fellow in 1999.

• From 1991-2000 he was a member of the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists.


• He has taught journalism at Boston University, Tufts University, and MIT.

Publications

1. Ropeik, D. "Risk Communication and Non-linearity", lead article of vol. 15 of the BELLE Newsletter, a journal about a new approach to toxicology, 2009


2. Ropeik, D. "Risk Communication, More Than Facts", an article for the semi-annual magazine of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 2008


3. Ropeik, D. “Risk Communication and Non-Linearity”, BELLE Newsletter, 2008


4. Ropeik, D. “Best Practices Response”, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Aug. 2006, vol. 34, no. 3, 253-256


5. Ropeik, D., “Risk perception Why Our Fears Don’t Match the Facts.”, Journal of Environmental Management, June 2005, 26-27


6. Ropeik D, “Risk Communication, An Overlooked Tool for Improving Public Health”, chapter for textbook Maxcy-Rosenau-Last - Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Last J, Wallace R (eds) 15^th ed., in press


7. Ropeik D, “The calculus of risk vs. benefit. Opinion essay, Newsday, Nov 28, 2004


8. Ropeik. D, “The Consequences of Fear”, EMBO Reports (The Journal of the European Molecular Biology organization, Science and Society Special Report), vol. 5, 2004


9. Ropeik D, “Mad Cow and The Media”, opinion essay, Washington Post, Dec. 31, 2003


10. Ropeik D, “Never Bitten, Twice Shy: The Real Dangers of Summer”, opinion essay, New York Times, Aug. 9, 2003


11. Ropeik D, Slovic, P, “Risk Communication: A Neglected Tool in Protecting Public Health”, Risk in Perspective, vol. 11, issue 2, June 2003


12. Ropeik D, “Risk Business” opinion essay in the Harvard Crimson May 23, 2003


13. Ropeik D, “What Really Scares Us”, Parade Magazine, March 30, 2003


14. Ropeik D, Slovic, P, “How to cope in a world of risk”, Global Agenda (the magazine of the World Economic Forum) Issue 1, 2003 pp 158-159


15. Ropeik D, “Journalists Can be Seduced by Aspects of Risk”, Nieman Reports, vol. 56, No. 4, winter 2002


16. Ropeik D, Gray G, RISK!, A Practical Guide for Deciding What’s Really Safe and What’s Really Dangerous in the World Around You, (485 pp) Houghton Mifflin, October 2002.


17. Ropeik, D, “Be Afraid of Being Very Afraid”, opinion essay, The Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2002


18. Gray G, Ropeik D, “Dealing with the Danger of Fear: The Role of Risk Communication”, Health Affairs vol. 21, no. 6, 106-116, Nov./Dec 2002


19. Ropeik D, “Living in Fear”, opinion essay, The Boston Globe, June 13, 2002


20. Hammitt J, Ropeik D, “Diesel fuel would slash energy use and greenhouse gas”, opinion essay, The Sacramento Bee, April 7, 2002


21. Gray G, Kreindel S, Ropeik D, “Mad Cow Disease risk in the United States”, guest editorial, Postgraduate Medicine, vol. 111, no.2, Feb. 2002


22. Ropeik D, “To Risk or Not to Risk”, Muse Magazine, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 2002


23. Gray G, Ropeik D, “What, me worry”, The Boston Globe opinion essay, Nov. 11, 2001


24. Ropeik D, “Conquer terrorists’ most powerful weapon: Fear”, opinion essay, USA Today, September 27, 2001


25. Ropeik D, “Reaction to West Nile Is Exaggerated”, opinion essay, Newsday, May 8, 2001


26. Gray G, Ropeik D, “Keep Risk in Perspective”, opinion essay, USA Today, Feb. 12, 2001


27. Ropeik D, “More Study is needed on DWP (Driving While Phoning)”, opinion essay, The Boston Globe, November 20, 2000


28. Gray G, Ropeik D, “Risk Analysis and Food Safety”, NFPA Journal, September, 2000


29. Ropeik D, “Let’s Get Real About Risk”, opinion essay, The Washington Post, Aug. 6, 2002


30. Ropeik D, “The invisible ingredients in ‘Frankenfood’”, opinion essay, The Boston Globe, April 2, 2000


31. Ropeik D, “Biotechnology Regulation”, letter of response, Issues in Science and Technology, vol. 16, no. 2, Fall 2000


32. Ropeik D, Broadcast Science Journalism, book chapter, A Field
    Guide for Science Writers, National Association of Science Writers Oxford University Press, April 1997


33. Ropeik D, Reviving Environmental Coverage, The Challenge to TV, Nieman Reports, vol. 50, no. 4, 1996