Faculty & Staff
Usha Lee McFarling, Director
ushalee@mit.edu
Phone: 617-258-8249
Usha Lee McFarling is a science journalist who has reported for STAT, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, and the San Antonio Light. Her work has received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism, Polk Award, Victor Cohn prize, Edward R. Murrow award and the Bernard Lo, MD award in bioethics, among others. She currently serves on the board of the Association of Health Care Journalists and is publisher of Undark. Usha graduated from Brown University with a degree in biology and earned a master’s degree at UC Berkeley.
Ashley Smart, Associate Director
asmart@mit.edu
Phone: 617-253-3442
Ashley Smart joined the KSJ program as associate director in 2018, following eight years as an editor at Physics Today. He received a PhD in chemical and biological engineering from Northwestern University in 2007 and followed that with a two-year post-doc at the California Institute of Technology before taking up a career in science journalism. A 2015-16 KSJ fellow, he is a member of the advisory boards for the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and for The Open Notebook.
Myles Crowley, Program Administrator
mcrowley@mit.edu
Phone: 617-452-3513
Myles Crowley is the program administrator for the Knight Science Journalism Program and the financial director of Undark Magazine. Prior to joining KSJ, Myles worked in public services in the MIT Libraries Distinctive Collections, which includes the Institute Archives. He also worked in finance, operations, and media relations in the MIT News Office. Crowley has a B.A. and M.A. in history from UMass Boston and is a lifelong resident of Boston.
Claire Sadar, Learning and Events Coordinator
sadarc@mit.edu
Phone: 617-253-0961
Claire Sadar is an events professional and freelance journalist focusing on religion, politics, social justice, and the intersections thereof. She earned a BA in History from Dickinson College and an MA in Religion and Society from Boston University. Prior to joining KSJ, Claire was the Program Manager a Historic New England where she developed virtual programs, created community partnerships, and managed events across New England.
Anna Cass, Communications Coordinator
annacass@mit.edu
Phone: 617-258-8889
Anna Cass is a communications and marketing professional with experience focused in social impact. She holds a B.A. in Public Health, Public Policy, and Socially Transformative Arts from Brandeis University, where she also earned her M.S. in Digital Marketing and Design. Prior to joining KSJ, Anna developed marketing and communications strategy at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy and completed a fellowship in marketing and communications at Mass Audubon.
Charleen Andújar Ortiz, Financial Assistant
chao25@mit.edu
Phone: 617-258-5769
Charleen Andújar Ortiz is the Financial Assistant for the Knight Science Journalism Program and Undark Magazine. Prior to joining KSJ, she worked as an Administrative Assistant in the Building Operations & Safety Departments at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has experience as a general accountant, voice professor, and freelance singer & actress. Charleen holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Puerto Rico, a BM in Voice Performance from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, and an MM in Voice Performance from Boston Conservatory.
Undark Magazine
Tom Zeller Jr., Editor in Chief
tzeller@mit.edu
Phone: 617-324-4997
Tom Zeller Jr. has spent two decades covering technology, energy policy, poverty, and the environment for a variety of national and international publications, including 12 years as a staff writer and editor at The New York Times. Tom is a former grantee of the International Reporting Project, and he was selected as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow in 2013. He joined the KSJ program as the founding editor of Undark in 2015.
Jane Reza, Deputy Editor
cjr3@mit.edu
Jane Reza, Deputy Editor of Undark magazine, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a B.A. in Journalism and Economics, with a minor in Environmental Studies. Before coming to the Knight Science Journalism program, Jane interned with the wealth team at Forbes, where she valued and wrote about some of the country’s richest billionaires. She joined Undark Magazine as Associate Editor in 2016 and has since developed its widely respected fact-checking program.
To see Undark’s full editorial and publishing team, visit the magazine’s “Meet Our Team” page.