Zocalo Public Square adds a national and science editor

Photo of Cook by Aaron Salcido/Zócalo

Zócalo Public Square has hired Jia-Rui Cook as national & science editor on the website's growing editorial team. She has been a science writer and media relations specialist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2009, and before that was a general assignment writer at the Los Angeles Times. Cook is also a graduate of Harvard College who earned her master’s degree at Oxford University. From Zócalo's web story:

Jia-Rui comes on board at a time of unprecedented expansion for Zócalo. In less than a year, our national syndicate—which distributes Zócalo essays and articles to media outlets around the country—has grown to over 110 members, including Time and USA Today. And in the past six months, we’ve launched new partnerships with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Getty.

Jia-Rui will work out of Zócalo’s offices at the Arizona State University California Center in Santa Monica.

A year ago she was interviewed in the Zócalo Green Room (as Jia-Rui Ching Cook) about her previous stint on "Jeopardy," the radio station she wakes up to and her biggest peeve:

You know when you’re on the 110 North trying to get onto the 5 going north? I hate all the people who cut into the line at the very end! I hate that, because everyone else has been waiting in line politely. I’m just as anxious as you are to get to where I’m going.