Dina Cappiello is Environmental Reporter with the Houston Chronicle, in Houston, Tx., where she is responsible for a wide range of local, state, and regional news coverage and for conceptualizing and executing a weekly environmental page. She takes pride in frequently developing the kinds of front-page stories that she says help "set the environmental agenda in Texas."

Cappiello until October 2002 had covered environmental issues for the Times Union, in Albany, N.Y. She previously had worked for three years as a freelance writer.

A graduate of Georgetown University with a B.S. degree in biology, Cappiello earned a dual master's degree in Earth and Environmental Science Journalism from Columbia University in New York, earning an M.S. in Journalism and an M.A. in Environmental Science. She also has an M.S. in Secondary Science Education.

A member of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) and of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Cappiello won the 2005 National Association of Environmental Professionals Excellence Award for Education Excellence, and she won an Honorable Mention in 2002 from the Associated Press for in-depth reporting. She has twice been a Finalist for the John B. Oakes Award for distinguished environmental reporting, and in 2001 she was recognized by the New York State Associated Press Association as its Young Journalist of the Year.