We’re proud to announce that Jia-Rui Cook is joining our team as Zócalo’s new National & Science Editor. Cook, a graduate of Harvard College who earned her master’s at Oxford University, had been NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory media relations specialist and science writer since 2009; previously, she was a senior general assignment writer at the Los Angeles Times.

Jia-Rui comes on board at a time of unprecedented expansion for Zócalo. In less than a year, our national syndicate—which distributes Zócalo essays and articles to media outlets around the country—has grown to over 110 members, including Time and USA Today. And in the past six months, we’ve launched new partnerships with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Getty.

Jia-Rui will work out of Zócalo’s offices at the Arizona State University California Center in Santa Monica.