Elizabeth McGowan

In 1985, while living in Burlington, Vermont, she was diagnosed with melanoma, the same type of cancer that had taken her father, Ronald McGowan, who died of melanoma at age 44; she was 24 years old. Doctors removed the melanoma, but in late 1986, the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, and after removal, she enrolled in a trial of a new drug, interferon, the infusions and treatment lasting for 11 months.[10][11]

McGowan moved to Wisconsin and began working full-time in December 1987, for the Janesville Gazette. She continued to work even after a follow-up visit revealed that the cancer had returned. In 1989, an x-ray and biopsy confirmed that "little metastases" were present in both of her lungs. That summer, she went through 4 rounds of an experimental cocktail of chemotherapy drugs, called the Dartmouth Regimen. The normal treatment regimen consisted of 3 rounds, but after consulting with her doctors, they agreed to the additional round. She worked for the Gazette until the spring of 1991.[10][12] That year, after hearing the good news that the cancer was gone, she decided to go to Springer Mountain and the hike the entire Appalachian Trail.[10] McGowan met her husband, Don Looney, on the hike.[6]

McGowan returned to Wisconsin and in the mid 1990s, she worked for 5 years as a reporter for The Times Journal, covering government and writing feature articles. However, in 1994, her fight with cancer returned, this time invading her liver, requiring surgery. She fully recovered.[10][11]

In August of 2000, in celebration of 5-years of being cancer-free, she used her experience to raise funds for the Waukesha Memorial hospital, by riding her bicycle, solo, from coast to coast.[10] She called her trek, "Heals on Wheels."[11]

McGowan began her bicycle trip from Astoria, Oregon, to the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia, along the TransAmerica Trail, a 4,250-mile ride. She finished the trek in November, at the Chesapeake bay. In 2020, she wrote a book on her experience with cancer titled, Outpedaling the Big C: My Healing Cycle Across America.[1][12]

In 2010, McGowan joined the staff of InsideClimate News, a non-profit news organization, as their Washington, D.C. correspondent.[9] During her tenure with InsideClimate, she won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with David Hasemyer and Lisa Song for their report on the Kalamazoo River oil spill.[4]

The 3-part series, and follow up stories, were the result of a 15-month investigation on pipeline safety and Dilbit, a controversial form of oil. In the cover letter for entry to the prize, dilbit is described as "a thick Canadian hydrocarbon called bitumen that is diluted with liquid chemicals so that it can flow through pipes." The pipeline already had corrosion problems and it was more than a week before the EPA knew that they were dealing with dilbit, because the pipeline operators weren't required to tell first responders in the event of a spill; dilbit is different from normal oil, in that the chemicals evaporate and the thick, different form of oil, sinks to the bottom and is very difficult to clean up.[4] The series and follow-up reporting is listed below.

• "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 1," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 26, 2012.[13]
• "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 2," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 27, 2012.[14]
• "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the biggest oil spill you've never heard of, Part 3," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 28, 2012.[15]
• "Epilogue: Cleanup, Consequences and Lives Changed in the Dilbit Disaster," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, June 29, 2012.[16]
• "New Pipeline Safety Regulations Won't Apply to Keystone XL," Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, July 26, 2012.[17]
• "Angry Michigan Residents Fight Uneven Battle Against Pipeline Project on Their Land," David Hasemeyer, InsideClimate News, September 12, 2012.[18]
• "Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology," Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, September 19, 2012.[19]
• "EPA Worries Dilbit Still a Threat to Kalamazoo River, More than 2 Years After Spill," David Hasemeyer, InsideClimate News, October 11, 2012.[20]
• "Keystone XL Would Not Use Most Advanced Spill Protection Technology," Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, December 20, 2012.[21]
• "Little Oversight for Enbridge Pipeline Route that Skirts Lake Michigan," Lisa Song and David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, December 27, 2012.[22]

When the 2013 Pulitzer prize winners were announced, InsideClimate News was one of the least known of the digital news organizations; Politico's headline described the win in their headline, "For a scrappy environmental-news startup, journalism's most prestigious award." Digital-only prizes had only been awarded since 2009 and very few had won.[23] According to the cover letter, in the entry for the prize, the investigations stemmed from research that Lisa Song had originally began, and McGowan and Hasemyer joined in shortly after.[4]

In 2013, after winning the pulitzer prize, she left InsideClimate News to write her book on her experience with cancer titled, Outpedaling the Big C: My Healing Cycle Across America, which was published in 2020.[1]