Christie Aschwanden is an award-winning freelance writer and editor. She is a contributing editor for Runner’s World and was a contributing editor for Health from 2000 to 2010. She has been a contributing writer for Skiing and her articles and essays have appeared in more than 50 other publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, O—the Oprah Magazine, Men’s Journal, Slate, NPR, Mother Jones, National Wildlife, Backpacker, Reader’s Digest, Self, WebMD, Science, Cell and New Scientist. Christie has written and edited books and reports for the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health and other national and international organizations. She has been interviewed about her work by the BBC and other media.
Her 2010 Runner’s World feature, “Pet Project,” was a National Magazine Award Finalist in 2011. In 2005, Christie won a best article award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and was a fellow at MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Medical Evidence Boot Camp. In 2007, she won the Outstanding Essay Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and an honorable mention for print journalism from the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
Christie received a grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting in 2007 to spend three weeks in Vietnam reporting on the legacy of Agent Orange. Her television report on Agent Orange, created in collaboration with producer George Lerner, appeared on the PBS program Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria in June 2007. Her New York Times article about an Agent Orange remediation project in Vietnam’s central highlands was awarded the 2008 Arlene Award for articles that make a difference.
A frequent speaker at writer’s workshops and journalism conferences, Christie has taught at the Boulder Magazine Writer’s Conference, the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop and the Telluride Writer’s Guild. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Association of Health Care Journalists.
A lifetime athlete, Christie has raced in Europe and North America on the Team Rossignol Nordic ski racing squad. She lives with her husband on a small vineyard and farm in western Colorado. In her spare time, she enjoys trail running, bicycling, digging in the garden and raising heritage poultry.
