Founded in 2018 and based in Atlanta, The Xylom reports on everything you need to know about global health and environmental disparities.
Our name is derived from the Ancient Greek word ξύλον (xúlon), the plant tissue that transports water and nutrients from the roots up to the stems and leaves.
As the only Asian American-run news outlet dedicated to health, climate, and environmental coverage, we draw on the indomitable spirit of the American South and the sensibility of our forebearers from the Global South to help you take root and flourish in a healthier planet. Our award-winning multilingual, multimedia reporting seeks to bring you clarity, complicate the narrative, and drive actionable solutions.
The Xylom is an independent, nonprofit website whose work is written, reported, and owned by human journalists. We will never have a paywall, and we don't take money from Big Pharma and Big Oil companies, lobbyists, or politicians either. That's because our intended audience is real people, not AI scrapers, bots, or search algorithms.
MEET THE TEAM
ALEX IP 葉清霖
Publisher and Editor
Alex weaves deeply reported narratives on the future of cities and environmental justice with original photography and open-source intelligence. His reporting on false statements from the City of Atlanta regarding "Cop City" led to him being named the Atlanta Press Club's 2024 Rising Star.
Born and raised in Hong Kong and fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, Alex also led a team to translate the KSJ Science Editing Handbook into Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). Alex holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech and a master's degree in Science Writing from MIT.
Laasya is The Xylom's Managing Editor, based in Chennai, India. She is a veteran of two venerable local independent news outlets, Citizen Matters and Newslaundry. As a freelancer, she has written extensively on environmental issues, women's and children's rights, and other critical social and civic issues for the BBC, Thomson Reuters, Nature, Dialogue Earth, and Mongabay India. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from Bharathiar University.
KANG-CHUN CHENG 鄭康君
Editor-at-Large
KC is a Taiwanese American photojournalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, covering how environmental change impacts one's sense of belonging, foreign aid, and outdoor adventure. Her work began in the Arctic and extends globally, including unfriendly places like eastern Ukraine, northern Mozambique, and South Sudan — she can work in any environment with ease.
KC's bylines include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Nature Journal, Earth Island Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, and Summit Journal.
Betsy Ladyzhets is the founder of The Sick Times, a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long Covid crisis, and the community manager for the CASW Connector, a curated collection of resources to promote excellence in interpreting science for the public. Before that, she ran the COVID-19 Data Dispatch, a publication that provides news and resources on pandemic data. Her bylines include Science News, STAT, FiveThirtyEight, the COVID Tracking Project, and other outlets.
Betsy Ladyzhets
Paola Rosa-Aquino is a freelance science writer. She has a background in astronomy and was an Environmental Justice Fellow at Grist. A native Puerto Rican fluent in Spanish, she is also the Executive Committee Vice Chair at The Uproot Project, a network of and for environmental journalists of color. Her previous bylines include Insider, Popular Science, The New Republic, Gizmodo and Salon.
Paola Rosa-Aquino
Tyler Jones is an Editorial Fact-Checker for NPR, and Program Coordinator at the Boston University SciCommers program. She bridges her background in Entomology with extensive experience working with early-career science communicators and writers. She is an organizer for Black Birders Week, and her bylines appear on The Daily Beast, Tucson Audubon's Vermillon Flycatcher, and Penn State News.
Tyler Jones
ADVISORY BOARD
Priyanka Runwal is a multilingual science journalist based in New York City. For C&EN, she covers communities impacted by toxic pollutants and those left behind in the wake of scientific advances. Previously, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic and other health stories as National Geographic's resident reporter. Priyanka's work has also appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, STAT, and BBC Earth, among other publications; she was the 2025 AAJA Journalism Excellence in Science/Environment/Health Reporting Award winner.
Priyanka Runwal
Dr. Yangyang Cheng is a Research Scholar in Law and Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, where her work focuses on the development of science and technology in China and US‒China relations. Her essays have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, MIT Technology Review, and WIRED. As a co-host, writer, and producer of Crooked Media’s acclaimed narrative podcast series Dissident at the Doorstep, she was a 2025 AAJA Journalism Excellence Award recipient.
Yangyang Cheng
Rhysea Agrawal is The Xylom's former Managing Editor. She is currently the Engagement Editor of the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication, and the Founder and Creative Director of What the Earth. Rhysea graduated from USC with degrees in Journalism, Geological Science, and English. She served as the Founding Editor of USC Annenberg Media's Earth Desk. Her other bylines include CalMatters, Sojourners, and one5c.
Rhysea Agrawal
WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD TOGETHER.
Our stories amplify marginalized voices, drive accountability, and spur local action.
MASTHEAD
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
Laasya Shekhar
Managing Editor
Kang-Chun Cheng
Editor-at-Large