Robert Finn

Last updated December 27th 2009
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Robert Finn

2224 Lisa Lane
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

925-685-6993

http://www.bobfinn.net

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Objective 

To use my skills and experience in scientific and medical journalism and in new media. I'm looking for a challenging senior position at an organization dedicated to informing the lay public or specialized technical audiences.

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Work Experience 

San Francisco Bureau Chief

Rockville, Maryland

International Medical News Group

2001 - Present


  • Reported on a wide variety of medical meetings for an audience of specialty physicians, meeting frequent daily deadlines and managing multiple simultaneous projects, including news articles, feature stories, columns, and editorials.
  • Provided leadership in company's transition from print journalism to multimedia, new media, and Web 2.0-based offerings, including blogs, podcasts, and video.
  • Anchored, narrated, and edited audio and video news segments, including live interviews with prominent physicians and researchers.
  • Engaged readers using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Gained more than 950 Twitter followers using a number of strategies, including live-tweeting medical meetings.

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Senior Science Writer

Pasadena, California

California Institute of Technology

1985 - 1992


  • Served as spokesman for Caltech on matters ranging from gifts and grants to earthquakes and scientific advances.
  • Contributed to strategic decision-making on all aspects of the Institute's internal and external public relations.
  • Developed crisis communications plans, anticipating public and media responses following disasters or animal rights activities.
  • Performed all functions of a public information officer, including writing press releases, organizing press conferences, maintaining extensive contacts with local and national media, and answering inquiries from the press and the public on a wide variety of issues.
  • Helped supervise a full-time assistant and a number of part-time, temporary, and work-study employees.

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Freelance Science and Medical Writer and Editor

1980 - Present


  • Wrote feature articles, news stories, and reviews for The Los Angeles Times, Discover, Nature, The Scientist, Men's Fitness, Technology Review and other magazines and newspapers.
  • Provided public-relations consultation services for hospitals, schools, non-profit organizations, and small high-technology companies with clients including the Bienvenidos Children's Center, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, and the University of Redlands.
  • Interviewed more than 1,000 scientists, physicians and researchers.
  • Developed numerous contacts nationwide in the news media and the scientific community.
  • Edited, indexed, and wrote highly technical scientific material and also material intended for the lay public.
  • Familiar with many word processing programs and computer systems.
  • Experienced in using photo-editing, video-editing, and sound-editing software.
  • Highly accomplished at conducting online research.
  • Served as webmaster and listserv moderator for the National Association of Science Writers.

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Applications Training Specialist

Fullerton, California

Beckman Instruments

1980 - 1984


  • Wrote and edited instructional materials and designed and taught classes on scientific and medical instrumentation.

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Skills 

  • Researching, writing, and editing news and feature articles on highly technical subjects in health, medicine, science, and policy.
  • Choosing the appropriate writing style for a wide variety of audiences and venues. My palette of styles ranges from short, dense, to-the-point articles in trade publications for hurried professionals to chatty, lively articles for lay audiences on the web.
  • Interviewing physicians, scientists, politicians, and patients.
  • Writing video and audio scripts.
  • Writing blogs using software such as Wordpress and Blogger and syndicating them with RSS services.
  • Organizing and managing online social networking communities with various types of listservs, blogs, and web sites including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, and others.
  • Constructing web pages using software such as Dreamweaver, and evaluating web metrics with Google Analytics and other tools.
  • Audio and video recording with professional recording equipment.
  • Audio and video editing with software such as Audacity, Adobe Audition, and Final Cut Pro.
  • Still photography with digital SLR equipment, and photo editing with software such as Corel Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop.
  • Highly proficient with Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
  • Navigating both large organizations and small, at all levels from the CEO to individual contributors.
  • Facilitating meetings from brainstorming sessions to efforts at consensus building in a way that pleases all stakeholders.
  • Managing complex projects.

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Education 

A.B.

1972 - 1977

University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Biological Sciences

 

M.S.

1977 - 1980

University of California, Irvine, California
Neuroscience; Worked with Gary Lynch and Carl Cotman

 

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Professional Associations 

  • National Association of Science Writers (currently serving third term as an elected member of the Board of Directors)
  • Association of Health Care Journalists
  • Northern California Science Writers Association

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Community Involvement 

  • Half Moon Bay (Calif.) Bicycle Commission
  • Pleasant Hill (Calif.) Shopping Center Task Force
  • Pleasant Hill (Calif.) Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Steering Committee
  • Pleasant Hill Cohousing Homeowners Association Executive Committee (elected for 3 terms)

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Awards and Honors 

  • 2007 Samter Journalism Award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

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Publications 

Two books:
  • Cancer Clinical Trials: Experimental Treatments and How They Can Help You, O'Reilly & Associates, 1999.
  • Organ Transplants: Making the Most of Your Gift of Life, O'Reilly & Associates, 2000.
Plus literally thousands of news and feature articles for newspapers, magazines, and web sites.

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