Two new cadets join The Conversation as Assistant Editors

Two outstanding journalists have joined The Conversation’s editorial team in Australia as cadets in Health and Science + Technology. The roles were funded by reader donations and created to contribute to training the next generation of journalists who are passionate about providing reliable, trustworthy and impartial journalism.

The new Assistant Editors are:

Drew Rooke

Drew is an investigative journalist, research assistant and author of One Last Spin: the power and peril of the pokies (Scribe, 2018) and A Witness of Fact: the peculiar case of chief forensic pathologist Colin Mancock (Scribe, 2022). He has written for Cosmos Magazine, Guardian Australia, Griffith Review and the Saturday Paper, and was a 2021 Our Watch Fellow. He will be working with the Science + Technology team. Says Drew: “It is a great privilege to be working at The Conversation, a publication I have long admired, to help readers better understand the wild and fascinating world of science and technology.”

Ruth McHugh-Dillon

Ruth is a former lecturer in Spanish and Latin American studies, having completed her PhD in 2019. After working as an academic, writer and editor, Ruth pivoted to journalism, studying at RMIT, interning with ABC Ballarat, SBS and Seven News, and hosting a radio show in Triple R. She joins us from SBS, where she worked as an audio journalist. She will be working with the Health team. Says Ruth: “The Conversation offers something unique, bridging the gap between the deep seam of expertise in Australia’s universities and the general public’s hunger for frank and fact-based information - I am so thrilled to jump on board.”