Kay Ledbetter named Sigma Xi Science Communicator of the Year for Texas A&M
Writer: Kathleen Phillips, 979-845-2872, [email protected]
Contact: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, [email protected]
COLLEGE STATION — Kay Ledbetter of Amarillo has been named Science Communicator of the Year by the Texas A&M University chapter of Sigma Xi, according to Dr. Bill Klemm, senior professor of neuroscience and Sigma Xi chairman of the award selection committee.
Ledbetter has been writing news stories about science for Texas A&M AgriLife Research since 2005. As a media relations specialist, she serves the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension centers at Amarillo and Vernon, as well as 46 Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county offices in the Panhandle and Rolling Plains and several academic departments at Texas A&M University in College Station. Her news articles appear in AgriLife Today, the news outlet for Texas A&M AgriLife, as well as in local, state, national and international publications.
The award was announced May 3 during the annual banquet for Sigma Xi, a scientific research society whose mission is “to enhance the health of the research enterprise, foster integrity in science and engineering and promote the public’s understanding of science for the purpose of improving the human condition.”
Ledbetter is assigned to 85 AgriLife Research scientist writing news articles, taking photos and producing news videos about their research. She also handles the news needs for an additional 120 AgriLife Extension professionals, who also have research and ongoing educational programs for the public.
During the past five years she has written 133 science-specific news articles, snapped more than 130 science photos and produced 36 science news videos.
One scientist with whom Ledbetter has written news articles said he “routinely includes Kay as a collaborator on research proposals to assure her efforts to assist with reporting his results in the news media.” Another researcher said, “Kay provides her readers the power to understand the problem she is describing and the options of dealing with it.”
The topics of her news articles range from water policy to climate change to healthy “designer” potatoes to landscape plants, according to the nomination.
Ledbetter graduated from Groom High School in 1979 and earned a bachelor’s in journalism from West Texas A&M University in 1982 — the same year she began her career with the Amarillo Globe-News newspaper. She has earned numerous journalism and communications awards.
