Pitt Alumnae, Rebecca Skloot (A&S ‘07G), became a best-selling author in 2010 when she published her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot is a science writer and attended Portland Community College to become a Veterinary Technician. She received her Bachelor's in biological sciences from Colorado State University, and her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
Skloot has been published over 200 times, with her work appearing in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, Discover, and New York Magazine. Her first novel, however, put her on the map. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fiction novel about Henrietta Lacks and how she was unwittingly a source of cancer cells that would be studied as the first immortalized cell line, HeLa, which continues to be valuable to medical research today. It touches on the ethics of race and class in medical research. The novel was turned into an HBO film produced by and starring Oprah Winfrey and went on to earn an Emmy nomination.
Along with writing, Skloot has also taught creative writing and science journalism here at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as New York University, and the University of Memphis. She is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle where she is still a member, as well as the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of Science Writers.